Father Moisés Lira Serafin has been beatified in a ceremony at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his native Mexico, where he is beloved as a protector of life from conception and is credited with the miracle of saving an unborn child’s life.
Pope Francis welcomed the news 15 September during the Angelus, telling the faithful the priest, founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate, spent his life “helping people to advance in faith and in love of the Lord. …May his apostolic zeal encourage priests to give themselves unreservedly, for the spiritual good of the holy people of God.”
At his beatification Mass 14 September Father Lira was remembered as a joyful and joking person, even amid personal and physical pain, known for his humility and service to others.
His beatification followed the pope’s recognition of a miracle attributed to him involving a woman’s unborn daughter being diagnosed with foetal hydrops—an accumulation of fluid that is usually fatal—in the fifth month of pregnancy.
She told the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s newspaper Desde la Fe that her doctor recommended terminating the pregnancy to avoid the baby suffering. She learned of Father Lira and prayed to him for nine days, returning to the doctor during the sixth month of pregnancy. She was told her baby was in good health. Her daughter was born 6 September 2004.