Our Lady of Guadalupe

In the winter of 1531, a poor native Aztec Indian named Juan Diego was walking through the hills outside of Mexico City on his way to Mass. He heard music and a woman’s voice calling his name from a hill named Tepeyac.

He climbed the hill and found a woman who looked to be of his race and dressed in the clothes of his people. She identified herself as Mary and told Juan Diego to tell his bishop to build a shrine on the hill to encourage faithfulness in the people of Mexico City.

The bishop was skeptical and asked for a sign. When Juan Diego gave this message to Mary in a later apparition, he found roses blooming out of season. He gathered them in his tilma, a cloak-like a poncho, and she arranged the flowers and told him to take them to the bishop.

When Juan showed the bishop the roses, they saw that an image of Mary was left upon Juan’s cloak. The bishop was immediately convinced and built a shrine on Tepeyac. Soon, some 8 million people had come to the faith because of Mary’s apparition.

Juan Diego’s tilma was framed and kept in the shrine. It was made of a rough material from cactus and should have decayed within a few decades, but 500 years later is still an object of wonder for millions of pilgrims today.

Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared patroness of the Americas, and, as she is depicted as pregnant with Jesus, she is also patron of the Right to Life movement. (For a short reflection on the placement of this feast during the Advent season, read this essay from theology professor and Guadalupe scholar Maxwell Johnson here.)

This feast day is celebrated on campus with a vibrant Mass in the Basilica led by the Spanish-language student choir. A number of images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are presented on campus--this tapestry above hangs in the Eck Hall of Law Chapel. The painting shown above rests in a side chapel in the Basilica and is used in the Guadalupe Mass. It was painted by Maria Tomasula, professor of painting in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas and of the Right to Life movement, pray for us!

(from: http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&sitebuilder=1&pgid=10813)