December 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in North America.

On December 9th, 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego and left with him a picture of herself imprinted upon his tilma.

Juan Diego was a native American who had been converted to the Catholic faith. As humble and insignificant as he was, our beloved mother chose him to introduce herself to the world as our Lady of Guadeloupe.

She appeared to him on the hill as he walked to his catechism.

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she asked him to the the Bishop to build a church in her honour at the very spot she had appeared.

As would be expected, Juan told her he could not send her message but she told him that he can and therefore he did.

As expected, when he told the Bishop, he dismissed him. On another day, Juan was going to call a priest to administer the last Rite to his uncle Bernadino as he lay dying on his mat. Because Juan wanted to hide or escape from the encounter with the beautiful Lady, he used a different path but our Lady cut him off and told him to return to the Bishop with her previous request.

He told her his uncle was dying and he was on his way to call the priest. Mary told him his uncle was healed and precisely at the same time, Mary appeared to his uncle Bernadino and healed him.

Juan, believing our Lady went to asked for a sign as the Bishop had told him to ask a sign should the Lady appear again. So, he asked for a sign. Now, the weather at the time was hot, for it was in the summer.

But she directed Juan to climb to the other side of the hill and wow, fresh beautiful flowers which is unthinkable in that weather. She told him to give the the flowers to the Bishop for it was the sign he needed.

Juan picked all the beautiful flowers into his tilma and set off to the Bishop’s residence. Upon meeting the Bishop, he let down his tilma only to find the beautiful miraculous picture of our on his tilma.

Later, the miraculous picture was placed in a magnificent shrine which the Roman Pontiffs enabled by granting it a Chapter of Canons for the splendor of Divine Worship.

There, it became famous for the concourse of the people and the frequency of miracles, exciting immeasurably the piety of the Mexican nation toward the Mother of God.

Therefore, the Archbishop of Mexico and the other Bishops of those regions as well as all classes of society regard her as their most powerful Protectress in public and private calamities and elected her principal Patroness of Mexico.

Devotion to Mary under this title has continually increased and today she is the Patroness of the Americas.

Because of the close link between the church in Mexico and the United States, this feast is placed on the American Calendar as well.