Born in poverty, on September 30, 1765 in Valladolid (today Morelia), in the state of Michoacán, Morelos He worked as a muleteer and cowboy until, at the age of 25, in 1790, he entered the Colegio San Nicolás Obispo de Valladolid, where he studied Latin grammar, rhetoric, philosophy and ethics. In 1795, at the Tridentine Seminary in the same city, he studied moral theology and philosophy. On April 28, he traveled to Mexico City to take his bachelor of arts exams at the Real y Pontificia Universidad. On December 13, he received the first shearing and the four minor orders from Valladolid and six days later, he became a subdeacon. At the beginning of 1796, he moved to Uruapan as an auxiliary priest, dedicating himself to teaching grammar and rhetoric. In September of that year, he was ordained a deacon in Valladolid, and on December 21, 1779, he was ordained a priest in the same city.
In early October 1810, Morelos He received the news of the insurrection of Hidalgo and on the 19th of that month he went out to look for him. He caught up with Hidalgo the next day and spoke with him in Charo and Indaparapeo. Morelos he was in charge of taking up arms on the south coast. On November 13, together with his troops, he faced for the first time the royalist forces of Luis Calatayud in El Veladero. On November 17, Morelos issued an edict abolishing slavery, castes, and community funds. His activities worried the viceroy, who sent Francisco Paris to fight him. Paris faced him on December 8 at El Veladero, but was rejected.
On May 3, 1811, Morelos appointed Hermenegildo Galeana as his lieutenant. He then conquered Tixtla, where he joined Vicente Guerrero. It was there that he published an edict for the issuance of a copper coin and wrote to Ignacio López Rayón to form a council for the insurgency. On August 10, he arrived in Tehuacán, where he reorganized and trained his troops and took control of the rebel movement. In September of that same year, he appointed Matamoros as second in command and Galeana as marshal.
On October 18, Porlier and Luis del Águila defeated in Ojo de Agua Morelos who later took Oaxaca and there began the publication of the newspaper Sud. On April 12, 1813, he seized Acapulco and on August 31 he went to Chilpancingo, where on September 14 he inaugurated the Congress with the election of deputies and the reading from his “Feelings of the Nation“The next day, Congress elected him supreme commander in charge of the executive branch, and on November 6, he issued his Act of Independence.
On December 23, Ciriaco de Llano and Agustín de Iturbide persecuted Morelos outside the hills of Santa María, he retreated to Chupio and Puruarán, where he suffered a new defeat. In Tlacotepec, Congress removed him as Supreme Commander. He suffered a new defeat in Las Animas. Later he marched on Tecpan and Acapulco, and Congress removed him from executive power on March 14, 1814. On October 11, Morelos met with José María Cos in Santa Clara del Cobre. He continued towards Ario, pursued by the royalists, and arrived in Apatzingán, where Congress published its Constitutional Decree for the Freedom of Mexican America.
Congress decided to move to Tehuacán, due to the persecution that the royalists had undertaken against them, Morelos took over stopping the advance. On September 28, 1815, he went to Huetamo, Cutzamala and Tlachapa, and on November 2 he arrived at Atenango del Río. The next day, he arrived in Temalaca and on the fifth day, when he was heading towards Pilcaya, he was attacked by Concha and taken prisoner by Matías Carrasco, a former insurgent. He arrived in Mexico City on the 22nd, and five days later, he was declared a heretic and demoted in rank. On December 20, Calleja sentenced him to death. Morelos He was shot in San Cristóbal Ecatepec, on December 22, 1815.
In 1828, the city where he was born Morelos received the name of Morelia. In 1869, Benito Juárez decreed the founding of the state that bears his name. On September 16, 1925, his remains were transferred to the Column of Independence.