Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, was commissioned to write an icon of St. Toribio Romo Gonzalaz to be installed, along with a first-class relic of St. Torbio, at Holy Redeemer Church in Detroit.
St. Toribio was murdered by Mexican government troops in 1928. Since the early 1970s, there have been reports of his assistance to Mexicans crossing into the United States surreptitiously. He is considered by many to be the patron saint of undocumented immigrants.
The icon depicts St. Toribio holding a road-crossing sign depicting a fleeing family in black silhouette. It was commissioned by a Holy Redeemer parishioner.
The relic, a bone fragment, came from Santa Ana de Guadalupe in Jalisco State, Mexico, to the Archdiocese of Detroit on Nov. 3. After a brief stop at St. Joseph Studio on the IHM Motherhouse campus, it was received by Archbishop Allen Vigneron. Currently, the relic is being taken to various parishes within the Hispanic community. It was installed at Holy Redeemer in a glass-fronted reliquary. Nancy Lee’s icon will hang above it.
