Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a religious holiday in Mexico commemorating the appearance of the Virgin Mary near Mexico City in 1531

Why is it important?

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spanish: Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed to have occurred in December 1531, and a venerated image on a cloak enshrined within the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

The basilica is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the world's third most-visited sacred site.

Pope Leo XIII granted the image a decree of canonical coronation on 8 February 1887 and was pontifically crowned on 12 October 1895

Early History

Origin in Guadalupe, Spain

The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the many dark or black skinned Madonnas in Spain and is revered in the Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, in the town of Guadalupe, from which numerous Spanish conquistadors stem. The shrine houses a statue reputed to have been carved by Luke the Evangelist and given to the archbishop of Seville by Pope Gregory I.

According to local legend, when Seville was taken by the Moors in 712, a group of priests fled northward and buried the statue in the hills near the Guadalupe River. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Virgin appeared one day to a humble cowboy and ordered him to ask priests to dig at the site of the apparition.

Spaniards in Mexico

The Spaniards, after they conquered Mexico, wanted to convert the indigenous Indians to Catholicism, however they encountered many difficulties due to the Mexican strong faith and spirituality.

Juan Diego

According to Nican Mopohua, a 17th-century account written in the native Nahuatl language, the Virgin Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego, an indigenous Mexican peasant Chichimec and once to his uncle, Juan Bernardino.

Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

According to tradition, Mary, mother of Jesus, appeared to Juan Diego, who was an Aztec convert to Christianity, on four occasions in December 1531.

Juan Diego, as a devout neophyte, was in the habit of regularly walking from his home to the Franciscan mission station at Tlatelolco for religious instruction and to perform his religious duties. His route passed by the hill at Tepeyac.

First Apparition

at dawn on Saturday December 9, 1531, while on his usual journey, he encountered the Virgin Mary who revealed herself as the ever-virgin Mother of God and instructed him to request the bishop to erect a chapel in her honor so that she might relieve the distress of all those who call on her in their need. He delivered the request, but was told by the bishop Juan Zumárraga to come back another day after he had had time to reflect upon what Juan Diego had told him.

Second Apparition

returning to Tepeyac, Juan Diego encountered the Virgin again later the same day. He announced the failure of his mission, suggesting that because he was "a back-frame, a tail, a wing, a man of no importance" she would do better to recruit someone of greater standing, but she insisted that he was whom she wanted for the task. Juan Diego agreed to return to the bishop to repeat his request. This time, he found the bishop more compliant, however he asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was truly of heaven.

Third Apparition

Juan Diego returned immediately to Tepeyac and, encountering the Virgin Mary again, reported the bishop's request for a sign. She condescended to provide one on December 11.

By December 11, however, Juan Diego's uncle Juan Bernardino had fallen sick and Juan Diego was obliged to attend to him. In the very early hours of December 12 Juan Bernardino's condition having deteriorated overnight, Juan Diego set out to Tlatelolco to get a priest to hear Juan Bernardino's confession and minister to him on his death-bed.

source: wikipedia.org

Fourth Apparition

embarrassed at having failed to meet her on December 11 as agreed, Juan Diego chose another route around the hill, but the Virgin intercepted him and, after finding out about his uncle, Virgin gently chided him for not having had recourse to her. In the words which have become the most famous phrase of the Guadalupe event and are inscribed over the main entrance to the Basilica of Guadalupe, she asked: "┬┐No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre?" ("Am I not here, I who am your mother?"). She assured him that Juan Bernardino had now recovered and she told him to climb the hill and collect flowers growing there. Obeying her, Juan Diego found an abundance of flowers unseasonably in bloom on the rocky outcrop where only cactus and scrub normally grew.

Fifth Apparition (to the bishop)

Using his open mantle as a sack (with the ends still tied around his neck) Juan returned to the Virgin; she re-arranged the flowers and told him to take them to the bishop. On gaining admission to the bishop in Mexico City later that day, Juan Diego opened his mantle, the flowers poured to the floor, and the bishop saw they had left on the mantle an imprint of the Virgin's image which he immediately venerated.

The Basilica of Guadalupe

The Archbishop kept Juan Diego's mantle, first in his private chapel and then in the church on public display, where it attracted great attention. On December 26, 1531, a procession formed to transfer the miraculous image back to Tepeyac Hill where it was installed in a small, hastily erected chapel.

The basilica structure which now contains Juan Diego's cloak (tilma) was completed in 1974.

Iconography

When Juan Diego opened his cloak, letting dozens of flowers fall to the floor, he revealed the image of Mary imprinted on the inside of the cloak, which is now venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe

The figure is dressed from neck to feet in a pink robe and cerulean mantle, one side folded within the arms, emblazoned with eight-pointed stars with two black tassels tied high around her waist. The robe is spangled with a small gold quatrefoil motif ornamented with vines and flowers, its sleeves reaching to her wrists where the cuffs of a white undergarment appear.

source: wikipedia.org

Celebrations

In Mexico, celebrations occur all across the country. At churches everywhere, thousands attend Mass, and pilgrims descend upon the basilica to see the image of Mary.

The Fiesta in Mexico

The night before the Feast Day you will find some of the most famous singers and dignitaries of Mexico at the Shrine to celebrate the event.

Public celebrations, or fiestas, are held in honor of the Virgin, on December 12. Children are dressed in traditional costumes and are blessed in churches. Thousands of people come to church to pray.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Day is not a federal public holiday Mexico, but it is a religious festival, so many streets, roads, and transport providers are busy on December 12. It is an optional holiday for some workers and a holiday for banks and other financial sector organizations.