It is a recognized and shared sign of the identity of those who, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, have mixed-race skin, language and culture: today the Church celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe, the “Mother” of Latin America.
According to tradition, between 9 and 12 December 1531, on the Tepeyac hill north of Mexico City, Mary appeared several times to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec who converted to Christianity.
The name Guadalupe would have been dictated by Maria herself to Juan Diego: some have hypothesized that it is the Spanish transcription of the Aztec expression Coatlaxopeuh, “she who crushes the serpent” (see Genesis 3.14-15), as well as the reference to the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe founded by King Alfonso XI of Castile in the Spanish municipality of Guadalupe in 1340.
As a permanent memory of the apparition, a chapel was immediately erected on the site, replaced first in 1557 by another larger chapel, and then by a real sanctuary consecrated in 1622.
Finally in 1976 the current Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe was inaugurated. The cloak (tilmàtli) of Juan Diego is preserved in the sanctuary, on which the image of Mary is depicted, portrayed as a young Indian: due to her dark skin she is called Virgen morenita (“Mestizo Virgin”) by the faithful.
In 1921 Luciano Pèrez, an attacker sent by the government, hid a bomb in a bouquet of flowers placed at the foot of the altar; the explosion damaged the basilica, but the mantle and the glass that protected it remained intact.
Guadalupe’s apparition was recognized by the Catholic Church and Juan Diego was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002.
According to Catholic doctrine these apparitions belong to the category of private revelations.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is venerated by Catholics as the patroness and queen of all Spanish-speaking peoples and of the American continent in particular, reinvigorating the cult of Our Lady of the Spanish municipality of Guadalupe from the 14th century. She is also the patron saint of the Philippines.
His feast is celebrated on December 12, day of the last apparition. And December 12th is a holy day of obligation in Mexico.
