Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

*Guadalupe, Mexico 1531*

Ten years after the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards in 1521, Juan Diego, an Indian and recent convert to Catholicism, claimed to have seen and talked with the Virgin Mary. This religious experience would greatly influence Mexico and all of Latin America.

On December 9, 1531, while walking to church, Diego supposedly saw a brilliant vision of a young woman at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City. The radiating apparition spoke to Diego in Nahuatl, his own dialect, and identified herself as none other than the Virgin Mary, the blessed Mother of God. Diego, a man more than fifty years old, was ecstatic when he learned the identity of the radiant woman. She instructed him to have the bishop of Mexico construct a sanctuary at Tepeyac which would be a sign of her motherly love and compassion for the people. Diego, convinced that he had dialogued with the true Mother of God, eagerly set out to see the bishop.

Upon finding Juan de Zumarraga, the newly appointed Bishop of New Spain, Diego communicated the apparition's message. The bishop was naturally skeptical, and gave the story little credence. Three days later, during a second appearance of the apparition, Diego asked for a sign that would convince the bishop of his story's authenticity. The woman instructed him to fill his cloak (tilma) with roses, which were blooming unnaturally in December, and take them to the bishop. When the seer unrolled his cloak before the bishop, a permanent image of the Virgin Mary was imprinted on his cloak. The bishop accepted this as a genuine sign of the Virgin's presence to the people of Mexico. This tradition began popular devotion to the one known as "Our Lady of Guadalupe."

The first sanctuary at Guadalupe was erected around the year 1533. In 1709 a basilica was built which displayed Juan Diego's _tilma_ with the famous image upon it. In 1976 a new basilica was built and dedicated in Mexico City, with the old one still standing.

The story of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been extremely popular, particularly in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. In 1737 the Lady of Guadalupe was chosen as the Patroness of the City of Mexico, and in 1910 Pope Pius X declared her the Patroness of all Latin America. In 1945, Pope Pius XII stated that the Virgin of Guadalupe was the "Queen of Mexico and the Empress of the Americas."

While more than a dozen popes have expressed love and veneration for the image and its tradition, the apparitions have never been received officially as worthy of pious belief. Nonetheless, the high honors given the Virgin of Guadalupe put it in the second category of "unofficial acceptance." Millions of people come to Mexico to visit the basilica dedicated to "Our Lady of Guadalupe." In fact, Pope John Paul II, in his first "apostolic journey," made a "pilgrimage of faith" to this shrine in January, 1979. During his pilgrimage the pope addressed these words to the Mexican people: "I come to you bearing in my eyes and in my soul the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, your Protectrix. You bear a filial love toward her which I have been able to spot not only in her shrine but also while passing through the streets and cities of Mexico. Wherever there is a Mexican, there is the Mother of Guadalupe. Someone recently told me that 96 out of 100 Mexicans are Catholic but 100 out of 100 are Guadalupeans!"