feast day: December 12
about:
- Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spanish: Virgen de Guadalupe), is a title of the Virgin Mary associated with a celebrated pictorial image housed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in México City. Mexican national identity is entwined with that of Guadalupe.
- Marian apparition that happened in Guadalupe, Mexico
- witness: Saint Juan Diego
- patronage: Mexico and Latin America
- Official Catholic accounts state that on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw an apparition of a young girl at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, the girl asked that a church be built at that site in her honor; from her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary. According to the account, Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the "lady" for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin healing Juan's uncle. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. Although December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, on the normally barren hilltop. The Virgin arranged these in his peasant cloak or tilma. When Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
links/ sources:
- "Our Lady of Guadalupe" (source: Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe
- "Our Lady of Guadalupe" (source: Catholic Online):
http://www.catholic.org/about/guadalupe.php
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=456
- "Our Lady of Guadalupe" (source:EWTN):
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsholy/saints/O/ourladyofguadalupe.asp
