Who was Marco Calzada?

Marco was a normal young man, an older brother, a friend of his friends, noble, simple, cheerful, healthy, authentic, helpful and willing. He liked music, playing guitar, dancing, boxing, sharing with his friends, partying, having fun like any other boy his age, but his heart was in the mission. That's what set him apart.

He was born on June 28, 2003. He attended the first years of school at Colegio La Salle. In 2017 he enrolled at Cedes Don Bosco Technical College where he graduated with a technical specialty in Software Development. Every Saturday he participated in the Don Bosco Oratorio apostolate playing his guitar, playing and sharing with children from the Alajuelita community. Also since 2017 he participated in the Schoenstatt Youth, and was an active leader until the end of his life. He was a responsible boy and combined his multiple apostolates between studies and work. He was in his first year at Lead University in Data Science Engineering, working at L.L.Bean as ''Asosociate QA Engineer''.

Motivated by a strong desire to serve those most in need, in 2021 he began to participate actively, along with his parents and sisters, in the Ignis Mundi mission, which meant moving with them to live in a vulnerable neighborhood of San José as a permanent missionary family. The afternoon before her death she was reading a book that anticipated what would happen hours later. The bookmark read "Dare, all for the Blessed Mother". The last page he read was about death and life, about suffering and victoriousness. "Et lux in tenebris lucet" "And light shines in the midst of darkness" Everything was intertwined. A short time later he meets his friends and goes to a bar to celebrate. His mother wrote him to see how he was doing, and he answered: "I'm going home soon", "wake me up tomorrow to go to the mission" Those were his last words with his parents. Minutes later he leaves the bar and begins his pilgrimage to La Victoria. He walks to the bus, as he did so many times, and, shortly before arriving, he was brutally murdered. At all times he maintained an attitude of inexplicable meekness and fortitude. His life and death has been for many a light on the road, which he continues to walk with us. He was a young Schoenstatter, a Salesian, a diocesan, an Ignis Mundi missionary... a young man marked by Christ and Mary, touched by the Love of God, whose fire endures and shines more than ever.  

Today it continues to enlighten many hearts.