
Also
known as Holy Mary of Guadalupe ,Virgin of Guadalup,e Maria de Guadalupe Memorial
12 December Profile Guadalupe is, strictly speaking,
the name of a picture, but the name was extended to the church containing the
picture and to the town that grew up around the church. It makes the shrine, it
occasions the devotion, it illustrates Our Lady. It is taken as representing the
Immaculate Conception, being the lone figure of the woman with the sun, moon,
and star accompaniments of the great apocalyptic sign with a supporting angel
under the crescent. The word is Spanish Arabic, but in Mexico it may represent
certain Aztec sounds. Its tradition is long-standing and constant, and in sources
both oral and written, Indian and Spanish, the account is unwavering. The Blessed
Virgin appeared on Saturday 9 December 1531 to a 55 year old neophyte named Juan
Diego, who was hurrying down Tepeyac hill to hear Mass in Mexico City. She sent
him to Bishop Zumárraga to have a temple built where she stood. She was at the
same place that evening and Sunday evening to get the bishop's answer. The bishop
did not immediately believed the messenger, had him cross-examined and watched,
and he finally told him to ask the lady who said she was the mother of the true
God for a sign. The neophyte agreed readily to ask for sign
desired, and the bishop released him. Juan was occupied all Monday with Bernardino,
an uncle, who was dying of fever. Indian medicine had failed, and Bernardino seemed
at death's door. At daybreak on Tuesday 12 December 1531, Juan ran to nearby Saint
James's convent for a priest. To avoid the apparition and the untimely message
to the bishop, he slipped round where the well chapel now stands. But the Blessed
Virgin crossed down to meet him and said, "What road is this thou takest son?"
A tender dialogue ensued. She reassured Juan about his uncle, to whom she also
briefly appeared and instantly cured. Calling herself Holy Mary of Guadalupe she
told Juan to return to the bishop. He asked the sign for the sign he required.
Mary told him to go to the rocks and gather roses. Juan
knew it was neither the time nor the place for roses, but he went and found them.
Gathering many into the lap of his tilma, a long cloak or wrapper used by Mexican
Indians, he came back. The Holy Mother rearranged the roses, and told him to keep
them untouched and unseen until he reached the bishop. When he met with Zumárraga,
Juan offered the sign to the bishop. As he unfolded his cloak the roses, fresh
and wet with dew, fell out. Juan was startled to see the bishop and his attendants
kneeling before him. The life size figure of the Virgin Mother, just as Juan had
described her, was glowing on the tilma. The picture was venerated, guarded in
the bishop's chapel, and soon after carried in procession to the preliminary shrine.
The coarsely woven material of the tilme which bears the
picture is as thin and open as poor sacking. It is made of vegetable fibre, probably
maguey. It consists of two strips, about seventy inches long by eighteen wide,
held together by weak stitching. The seam is visible up the middle of the figure,
turning aside from the face. Painters have not understood the laying on of the
colours. They have deposed that the "canvas" was not only unfit but unprepared,
and they have marvelled at apparent oil, water, distemper, etc. colouring in the
same figure. They are left in equal admiration by the flower-like tints and the
abundant gold. They and other artists find the proportions perfect for a maiden
of fifteen. The figure and the attitude are of one advancing. There is flight
and rest in the eager supporting angel. The chief colours are deep gold in the
rays and stars, blue green in the mantle, and rose in the flowered tunic. Sworn
evidence was given at various commissions of inquiry corroborating the traditional
account of the miraculous origin and influence of the picture. Some wills connected
with Juan Diego and his contemporaries were accepted as documentary evidence.
Vouchers were given for the existence of Bishop Zumárraga's letter to his Franciscan
brethren in Spain concerning the apparitions. His successor, Montufar, instituted
a canonical inquiry, in 1556, on a sermon in which the pastors and people were
abused for crowding to the new shrine. In 1568 the renowned historian Bernal Díaz,
a companion of Cortez, refers incidentally to Guadalupe and its daily miracles.
The lay viceroy, Enríquez, while not opposing the devotion, wrote in 1575 to Philip
II asking him to prevent the third archbishop from erecting a parish and monastery
at the shrine. Inaugural pilgrimages were usually made to it by viceroys and other
chief magistrates. Processes, national and ecclesiastical,
were laboriously formulated and attested for presentation at Rome in 1663, 1666,
1723, 1750. The clergy, secular and regular, has been remarkably faithful to the
devotion towards Our Lady of Guadalupe, the bishops especially fostering it, even
to the extent of making a protestation of faith in the miracle a matter of occasional
obligation. Pope Benedict XIV decreed that Our Lady of Guadalupe should be the
national patron, and made 12 December a holiday of obligation with an octave,
and ordered a special Mass and Office. Pope Leo XIII approved a complete historical
second Nocturne, ordered the picture to be crowned in his name, and composed a
poetical inscription for it. Pope Pius X permitted Mexican priests to say the
Mass of Holy Mary of Guadalupe on the twelfth day of every month, and granted
indulgences which may be gained in any part of the world for prayer before a copy
of the picture. The place, called Guadalupe Hidalgo since 1822, is three miles
northeast of Mexico City. Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine almost without
interruption since 1531-1532. A shrine at the foot of Tepeyac
Hill served for ninety years, and still forms part of the parochial sacristy.
In 1622 a rich shrine was erected, and in 1709 a newer one even richer one. There
are also a parish church, a convent and church for Capuchin nuns, a well chapel,
and a hill chapel all constructed in the 18th century. About 1750 the shrine got
the title of collegiate, a canonry and choir service being established. It was
aggregated to Saint John Lateran in 1754. In 1904 it was created a basilica, with
the presiding ecclesiastic being called abbot. The shrine has been renovated in
Byzantine style which presents an illustration of Guadalupan history. Patronage
Americas Central America Colorado Springs, Colorado, diocese of Corpus Christi,
Texas, diocese of Dodge City, Kansas, diocese of Estremadura, Spain Gallup, New
Mexico, diocese of Hondarribia, Spain Mexico Nashville, Tennessee, diocese of
New Mexico New World Orange, California, diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, diocese
of Pojoaque Indian Pueblo Ponce, Puerto Rico, diocese of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Sacramento, California, diocese of San Bernardino, California, diocese of Sioux
City, Iowa, diocese of Spain Victoria, Aragua, Venezuela Back
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