Venerating Our Lady of Guadalupe

Dec. 12 is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. According to tradition, the story begins in Mexico City in 1531, when an indigenous man named Juan Diego went to seek help for his sick uncle. He noticed and followed a glowing figure on the hill of Tepeyac. It was Our Lady of Guadalupe, who introduced herself as the Virgin Mary and requested that he build her a shrine on that same spot.

Juan Diego notified the Archbishop, who didn't believe him and asked for proof. Juan Diego returned to Our Lady, who told him to pick some flowers. It was winter, and nothing should have been in bloom, but Juan Diego found some roses and returned to Our Lady of Guadalupe. She placed the divine flowers in Juan Diego's cloak, a tilma. She asked him to take the roses to the Archbishop. When he presented them, the flowers fell to the ground and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe miraculously appeared on the tilma. The church, now known as the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was built. The tilma is displayed there today, and millions make a pilgrimage each year to see it. In 1990, Pope John Paul II visited Mexico and beatified Juan Diego. Ten years later he was declared a saint.

The story continues to resonate with many Catholics all over the world, including in the lives of these eight women and their children. Some have even made the pilgrimage from Minnesota to that same hill in Mexico City.