A statue of Santo Toribio Romo Gonzalez, the saint known to watch over immigrants, is touring Los Angeles this week.

According to Los Angeles Times, the 4-foot-tall statue was flown in from Jalisco, a state in Mexico, to Los Angeles for the first time last weekend.

"It cost the price of two first-class tickets to get him here, but we did it," Rosa Gonzalez, who was in charge of transporting the statue, said. "Now here he is, bringing blessings to everyone."

The statue will visit churches in three different counties. Those who come to see the wooden statue tell him their prayers such as "My mother needs a visa," or "I can't go on being illegal."

"Now he's able to come to see all the faithful who can't travel back to Jalisco to see him," Martin Rizo Soto, a priest who travels with the statue to protect it, said.

Santo Toribio was from Santa Ana de Guadalupe in Mexico and is especially revered by Mexicans. The priest died in a religious conflict in 1928, making him a martyr at the age of 28, and was canonized 14 years ago.

Some believe the saint appears to people crossing the border donning a cowboy hat and cowboy boots wherever they are suffering, be it in a migrant shelter or the desert. Believers of the miracle say the saint gives the struggling crosser water, food and money before helping them enter the United States. If the trip is too dangerous, Santo Toribio tells them to go back home.

"I owe him everything," Jose Ochoa, who saw the statue at Santiago de Compostela Catholic Church in Lake Forest, said. "I couldn't imagine dying without coming to see him to say thank you. ... Have faith in him. He will take care of you."

The saint's hometown, where his bones lay in a "small casket," is also a popular place for immigrants, LA Times reported. Many businesses are named after the saint, such as Santo Toribio Ice Cream and Santo Toribio Gift Shop.

"He's given many families in town a way to make a living and not have to go north," Rizo Soto said.

The Catholic Church does not recognize Santo Toribio as the patron of immigrants.

The statue's tour ends on July 20 at downtown Los Angeles' Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.


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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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