Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe

In Mexico, on the hill of Tepeyac, in the year 1531, the God-bearing Virgin Mary, as is piously handed down, appeared to the neophyte Juan Diego, and gave him a command for Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, which she urgently repeated, that a church was to be constructed in her name at that location. The bishop, however, requested a sign. Then, while he was seeking the sacraments for his dying uncle far from the place of the apparition, his loving Mother favored the neophyte with a third vision, assured him of his uncle's health, and after he had gathered roses into his cloak that had blossomed out of season, she ordered him to take them to the bishop. The roses having spilled out in the sight of the bishop, an image of Mary, impressed upon the cloak itself, according to the tradition, appeared to those present in a wondrous manner. At first kept in the bishop's chapel, then transferred to a shrine constructed on the hill of Tepeyac, it was finally moved to a magnificent temple, to which Mexicans increasingly began to gather in droves, for reasons of veneration and frequency of miracles. And therefore as an ever-present defense, the Mexican bishops, to the applause of the whole people, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe as the first Patroness of the Mexican people, which was duly confirmed by the apostolic authority of Benedict XIV. Leo XIII adorned the sacred image with a golden crown on Columbus Day, 1895, by the agency of the archbishop of Mexico. And St. Pius X declared the blessed Guadalupan Virgin as the Patroness of all Latin America.

Deus, qui sub beatíssimæ Vírginis Maríæ singulári patrocínio constitútos perpétuis benefíciis nos cumulári voluísti: præsta supplícibus tuis; ut, cuius hódie commemoratióne lætámur in terris, eius conspéctu perfruámur in cælis. Per Dóminum.

O God, who hast placed us under the special patronage of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, and hast been pleased to shower perpetual blessings upon us: grant to Thy suppliants; that, as we are brought joy on earth by the commemoration today, we may enjoy her sight in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.