Image courtesy of Nuestro Stories.
A glowing figure dressed as an Aztec Princess appeared to an indigenous child on a hill in Tepeyac, Mexico, on Dec. 9, 1531, the day of the Spanish Empire’s feast of the Immaculate Conception. That figure would change Mexico, and her name would be known and revered.
She was her Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgen de Guadalupe. She is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, associated with a series of five Marian apparitions. She became the patron saint of Mexico, but she has religious followers across Latin America and the Caribbean and inspired many to catholicism around the world.
An apparition that would change history
Her story begins when she appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec converted to Christianity, who became the first Roman Catholic indigenous saint from the Americas.
Their encounters mark one of the turning points in Mexican religious and cultural history: the mass popularization and integration of Christianity into indigenous Mexican society.
It is estimated that 9 million people converted to Christianity in Mexico. It also established the feast of Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe, celebrated on December 12th and one of the most important holidays in Mexico.
At their first meeting, she spoke to Juan Diego in his native tongue. After identifying herself, Our Lady asked Juan to tell the town’s bishop to build her a shrine in that same spot to show and share her love and compassion with all who believe.
When Juan Diego told the bishop, the latter didn’t believe him and asked for a sign. Mary appeared to the boy a second time (the second meeting happened on December 12, 1531)and told him to go and collect some flowers on the hill where they had first met.
On top of the hill, Juan Diego found beautiful flowers blooming on the frozen earth. He gathered them in his cloak and took them to the bishop.
When Juan Diego told the bishop of the second apparition and opened his cloak, the flowers that fell were Castillian roses — not grown in Mexico — and imprinted inside was the Lady’s glowing image.
A church was built on the site where the Lady appeared, and thousands in Mexico converted to Christianity. Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe was declared the patroness of the Americas, and Juan Diego was beatified in 1990 and canonized in 2002.
In 1666, a Catholic feast day in the name of Our Lady of Guadalupe was requested and approved, as well as the transfer of the date of the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe from September 8 to December 12, the latest date on which the Virgin supposedly appeared to Juan Diego.
This is the history behind the Feast of Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe — one celebrated worldwide. In preparation for the feast, many people erect altars in their homes, with candles and flowers surrounding the image of the Virgen — with her beautiful brown skin, an angel and moon at her feet, and sunlight rays encircling her.
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