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BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, MEXICO

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Home » Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico


BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, MEXICO








INTRODUCTION



The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico is a Catholic church, basilica,
and National shrine of Mexico which houses the cloak containing the image of Our
Lady of Guadalupe. In 1709 shrine was built in the North of Mexico City near the
hill of Tepeyac, where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to Saint
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. The basilica structure which now contains Juan
Diego’s cloak was completed in 1974.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico is also known as La Villa de
Guadalupe, in a more popular sense, La Villa, and has several churches and
related buildings.

One of the most important pilgrimage sites of Christianity, the basilica and
tilma (cloak) are visited by several million people every year, especially
around 12 December, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Feast day.


HISTORY OF BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, MEXICO



A nearby chapel was built on the sacred site devoted to a temple for Tonantzin
Coatlaxopeuh, an important mother goddess, after the Spanish conquerors
destroyed the temple. Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine almost
uninterrupted since 1531 & 1532. In the latter year, a shrine had been
constructed at the foot of Tepeyac Hill, which served the people for ninety
years. It was adapted as part of the parochial sacristy of the new basilica. In
1622 a rich shrine was erected; a newer one, much richer, in 1709.

Other structures of the eighteenth century connected with it are a parish
church, a convent and church for Capuchin nuns, a well chapel, and a hill
chapel. About 1750 the shrine got the title of collegiate, and a canonry and
choir service were established. In 1754 it was aggregated to the Basilica of St.
John Lateran. In 1904 it was designated as a basilica.


OLD BASILICA




The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico officially known as the “Templo
Expiatorio a Cristo Rey,” the first structure of the old basilica was begun in
1695 and it was not finished until 1709. The major architect was Pedro de
Arrieta. It is characterized by its doric interior and marble statues of Fray
Juan de Zumárraga, archbishop at the time it was started, and Juan Diego, the
peasant who saw the vision of the Virgin Mary.

These are featured in the altarpiece that originally held the image of Our Lady
of Guadalupe. (That altarpiece matches a similar one in the older chapel higher
on the hill, which features the archangels Gabriel and Michael). The church was
granted basilica status by Pope Pius X in 1904. The icon of Juan Diego’s cloak
was housed in this church from 1709 to 1974.

In 1921 a bomb planted in a flower vase near the altar by an anticlerical
terrorist exploded, causing great damage to the interior of the building. (In
memory of this incident, the New Basilica displays an iron crucifix called “the
attempt on Christ”.) The cloak survived undamaged.

As much of Mexico City is built upon the dried lakebed of Lake Texcoco, the land
was unstable and the old basilica was sinking. A new, more spacious basilica was
built. The old one was closed for many years and repairs have recently finished.
It is open to the public and perpetual adoration is held there.


MODERN BASILICA




The present church was constructed on the site of an earlier 16th century church
that was finished in 1709, the Old Basilica. When this basilica became dangerous
due to the sinking of its foundations, a modern structure called the New
Basilica was built next to it; the original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is
now housed in this New Basilica. Built between 1974 and 1976, the new Basilica
has a circular floor plan so that the image of the Virgin can be seen from any
point within the building.

The circular structure is 100 meters (330 feet) in diameter and can accommodate
up to 10,000 people. The choir is located between the altar and the churchgoers
to indicate that it, too, is part of the group of the faithful. To the sides are
the chapels of the Santisimo and of Saint Joseph. It has 9 chapels on the upper
floor. Under the main floor are the Basilica’s crypts, with 15,000 niches and 10
chapels. Its seven front doors are an allusion to the seven gates of Celestial
Jerusalem referred to by Christ.

In the Sanctuary grounds where the new Basilica is located there are also many
other buildings, including the original chapel on the exact site of the
apparitions to Juan Diego (Capilla del Cerrito) and the Old Basilica consecrated
in 1709, as well as other chapels where Masses and other sacraments of the
Church are celebrated daily.


OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE




Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a Catholic title
of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions,
which are believed to have occurred in December 1531, and a venerated image on a
cloak enshrined within the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The
basilica is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the world’s third
most-visited sacred site.

Pope Leo XIII granted the image a decree of canonical coronation on 8 February
1887 and was pontifically crowned on 12 October 1895.


MARIAN APPARITIONS



According to Nican Mopohua, a 17th-century account written in the native Nahuatl
language, the Virgin Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego, an indigenous
Mexican peasant Chichimec and once to his uncle, Juan Bernardino. The first
apparition occurred on the morning of Saturday, 9 December 1531 (Julian
calendar, which is December 19 on the (proleptic) Gregorian calendar in present
use). Juan Diego experienced a vision of a young woman at a place called the
Hill of Tepeyac, which later became part of Villa de Guadalupe, in a suburb of
Mexico City.

According to the accounts, the woman, speaking to Juan Diego in his native
Nahuatl language (the language of the Aztec Empire), identified herself as the
Virgin Mary, “mother of the very true deity”. She was said to have asked for a
church to be erected at that site in her honor. Based on her words, Juan Diego
then sought the Archbishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, to tell him
what had happened. Not unexpectedly, the Archbishop did not believe Diego. Later
the same day, Juan Diego again saw the young woman (the second apparition), and
she asked him to continue insisting.

The next day, Sunday, December 10, 1531 (Julian calendar), Juan Diego spoke to
the Archbishop a second time. The latter instructed him to return to Tepeyac
Hill and to ask the woman for a truly acceptable, miraculous sign to prove her
identity. Later that day, the third apparition appeared when Juan Diego returned
to Tepeyac; encountering the same woman, he reported to her the Archbishop’s
request for a sign, which she consented to provide on the next day (December
11).

By Monday, December 11 (Julian calendar), however, Juan Diego’s uncle, Juan
Bernardino, became ill, which obligated Juan Diego to attend to him. In the very
early hours of Tuesday, December 12 (Julian calendar), Juan Bernardino’s
condition having deteriorated overnight, Juan Diego journeyed to Tlatelolco to
get a Catholic priest to hear Juan Bernardino’s confession and help minister to
him on his deathbed.

To avoid being delayed by the Virgin and ashamed at having failed to meet her on
Monday as agreed, Juan Diego chose another route around Tepeyac Hill, yet the
Virgin intercepted him and asked where he was going (fourth apparition); Juan
Diego explained what had happened and the Virgin gently chided him for not
having made recourse to her.

In the words which have become the most famous phrase of the Guadalupe
apparitions and are inscribed above the main entrance to the Basilica of
Guadalupe, she asked “Am I not here, I who am your mother?”. She assured him
that Juan Bernardino had now recovered and told him to gather flowers from the
summit of Tepeyac Hill, which was normally barren, especially in the cold of
December. Juan Diego obeyed her instruction and he found Castilian roses, not
native to Mexico, blooming there.

According to the story, the Virgin arranged the flowers in Juan Diego’s tilma,
or cloak, and when Juan Diego opened his cloak later that day before Archbishop
Zumárraga, the flowers fell to the floor, revealing on the fabric the image of
the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The next day, December 13 (Julian calendar), Juan Diego found his uncle fully
recovered as the Virgin had assured him, and Juan Bernardino recounted that he
also had seen her after praying at his bedside (fifth apparition); that she had
instructed him to inform the Archbishop of this apparition and of his miraculous
cure; and that she had told him she desired to be known under the title of
‘Guadalupe’.

The Archbishop kept Juan Diego’s mantle, first in his private chapel and then in
the church on public display, where it attracted great attention. On December
26, 1531, a procession formed to transfer the miraculous image back to Tepeyac
Hill where it was installed in a small, hastily erected chapel.

During this procession, the first miracle was allegedly performed when a native
was mortally wounded in the neck by an arrow shot by accident during some
stylized martial displays performed in honor of the Virgin. In great distress,
the natives carried him before the Virgin’s image and pleaded for his life. Upon
the arrow being withdrawn, the victim fully and immediately recovered.


ORIGIN IN GUADALUPE, SPAIN



The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Guadalupe, Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain
was the most important Marian shrine in the medieval kingdom of Castile. It is
one of the many dark or black skinned Madonnas in Spain and is revered in the
Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, in the town of Guadalupe, from which
numerous Spanish conquistadors stem. The name is believed to be derived from the
Arabic phrase “Wad-al-lubb” (“hidden river”), because the river narrows down as
it flows near to the town of Guadalupe.

The shrine houses a statue reputed to have been carved by Luke the Evangelist
and given to Leander of Seville, archbishop of Seville, by Pope Gregory I.
According to local legend, when Seville was taken by the Moors in 712, a group
of priests fled northward and buried the statue in the hills near the Guadalupe
River.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the Virgin appeared one day to a humble
cowboy named Gil Cordero who was searching for a missing animal in the
mountains. Cordero claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him and ordered
him to ask priests to dig at the site of the apparition. Excavating priests
rediscovered the hidden statue and built a small shrine around it which became
the great Guadalupe monastery.


ORIGIN IN MEXICO



Following the Conquest in 1519 to 1521, the Marian cult was brought to the
Americas and Franciscan friars often leveraged syncretism with existing
religious beliefs as an instrument for evangelization. What is purported by some
to be the earliest mention of the miraculous apparition of the Virgin is a page
of parchment, the Codex Escalada from 1548, which was discovered in 1995 and,
according to investigative analysis, dates from the sixteenth century.

This document bears two pictorial representations of Juan Diego and the
apparition, several inscriptions in Nahuatl referring to Juan Diego by his Aztec
name, and the date of his death: 1548, as well as the year that the then named
Virgin Mary appeared: 1531. It also contains the glyph of Antonio Valeriano; and
finally, the signature of Fray Bernardino de Sahagun which was authenticated by
experts from the Banco de Mexico and Charles E. Dibble. Scholarly doubts have
been cast on the authenticity of the document.

A more complete early description of the apparition occurs in a 16 page
manuscript called the Nican mopohua, which has been reliably dated in 1556 and
was acquired by the New York Public Library in 1880. This document, written in
Nahuatl, but in Latin script, tells the story of the apparitions and the
supernatural origin of the image. It was probably composed by a native Aztec
man, Antonio Valeriano, who had been educated by Franciscans. The text of this
document was later incorporated into a printed pamphlet which was widely
circulated in 1649.

In spite of these documents, there are no 16th century written accounts of the
Guadalupe vision by the archbishop Juan de Zumárraga, as there ought to have
been, if the event had the Christian importance it is said to have had. In
particular, the canonical account of the vision features archbishop Juan de
Zumárraga as a major player in the story, but, although Zumárraga was a prolific
writer, there is nothing in his extant writings that can confirm the indigenous
story.

The written record suggests the Catholic clergy in 16th century Mexico were
deeply divided as to the orthodoxy of the native beliefs springing up around the
image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with the Franciscan order (who then had custody
of the chapel at Tepeyac) being strongly opposed to the outside groups, while
the Dominicans supported it.

The main promoter of the story was the Dominican Alonso de Montúfar, who
succeeded the Franciscan Juan de Zumárraga as archbishop of Mexico. In a 1556
sermon Montúfar commended popular devotion to “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, referring
to a painting on cloth (the tilma) in the chapel of the Virgin Mary at Tepeyac,
where certain miracles had also occurred. Days later, Fray Francisco de
Bustamante, local head of the Franciscan order, delivered a sermon denouncing
the native belief and believers. He expressed concern that the Catholic
Archbishop was promoting a superstitious regard for an indigenous image.

The devotion at the chapel to which they have given the name Guadalupe was
prejudicial to the Indians because they believed that the image itself worked
miracles, contrary to what the missionary friars had been teaching them, and
because many were disappointed when it did not.

Archbishop Montúfar opened an inquiry into the matter at which the Franciscans
repeated their position that the image encouraged idolatry and superstition, and
four witnesses testified to Bustamante’s statement that the image was painted by
an Indian, with one witness naming him “the Indian painter Marcos”. This could
refer to the Aztec painter Marcos Cipac de Aquino, who was active at that time.

Prof. Jody Brant Smith, referring to Philip Serna Callahan’s examination of the
tilma using infrared photography in 1979, wrote “if Marcos did, he apparently
did so without making a preliminary sketches in itself then seen as a near
miraculous procedure. Cipac may well have had a hand in painting the Image, but
only in painting the additions, such as the angel and moon at the Virgin’s
feet”.

Ultimately Archbishop Montúfar, himself a Dominican, decided to end Franciscan
custody of the shrine. From then on the shrine was kept and served by diocesan
priests under the authority of the archbishop. Moreover, Archbishop Montúfar
authorized the construction of a much larger church at Tepeyac, in which the
tilma was later mounted and displayed.

In the late 1570s, the Franciscan historian Bernardino de Sahagún denounced the
cult at Tepeyac and the use of the name “Tonantzin” or to call her Our Lady in a
personal digression in his General History of the Things of New Spain, also
known as the “Florentine Codex”.

At this place [Tepeyac], [the Indians] had a temple dedicated to the mother of
the gods, whom they called Tonantzin, which means Our Mother. There they
performed many sacrifices in honor of this goddess. And now that a church of Our
Lady of Guadalupe is built there, they also called her Tonantzin, being
motivated by those preachers who called Our Lady, the Mother of God, Tonantzin.

While it is not known for certain where the beginning of Tonantzin may have
originated, but this we know for certain, that, from its first usage, the word
refers to the ancient Tonantzin. And it was viewed as something that should be
remedied, for their having name of the Mother of God, Holy Mary, instead of
Tonantzin, but Dios inantzin. It appears to be a Satanic invention to cloak
idolatry under the confusion of this name, Tonantzin.

And they now come to visit from very far away, as far away as before, which is
also suspicious, because everywhere there are many churches of Our Lady and they
do not go to them. They come from distant lands to this Tonantzin as in olden
times. Sahagún’s criticism of the indigenous group seems to have stemmed
primarily from his concern about a syncretistic application of the native name
Tonantzin to the Catholic Virgin Mary. However, Sahagún often used the same name
in his sermons as late as the 1560s.


THE CROWN ORNAMENT



The image had originally featured a 12 point crown on the Virgin’s head, but
this disappeared in 1887. The change was first noticed on February 23, 1888,
when the image was removed to a nearby church. Eventually a painter confessed on
his deathbed that he had been instructed by a clergyman to remove the crown.
This may have been motivated by the fact that the gold paint was flaking off of
the crown, leaving it looking dilapidated.

But according to the historian David Brading, “the decision to remove rather
than replace the crown was no doubt inspired by a desire to ‘modernize’ the
image and reinforce its similarity to the nineteenth-century images of the
Immaculate Conception which were exhibited at Lourdes and elsewhere… What is
rarely mentioned is that the frame which surrounded the canvas was adjusted to
leave almost no space above the Virgin’s head, thereby obscuring the effects of
the erasure.”

A different crown was installed to the image. On February 8, 1887, a Papal bull
from Pope Leo XIII granted permission a Canonical Coronation of the image, which
occurred on October 12, 1895. Since then the Virgin of Guadalupe has been
proclaimed “Queen of Mexico”, “Patroness of the Americas”, “Empress of Latin
America”, and “Protectress of Unborn Children” (the latter two titles given by
Pope John Paul II in 1999).


THE BEATIFICATION OF JUAN DIEGO



Under Pope John Paul II the move to beatify Juan Diego intensified. John Paul II
took a special interest in non-European Catholics and saints. During his
leadership, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared Juan Diego
“venerable” (in 1987), and the pope himself announced his beatification on May
6, 1990, during a Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City,
declaring him “protector and advocate of the indigenous peoples,” with December
9 established as his feast day.

At that time historians revived doubts as to the quality of the evidence
regarding Juan Diego. The writings of bishop Zumárraga, into whose hands Juan
purportedly delivered the miraculous image, did not refer to him or the event.
The record of the 1556 ecclesiastical inquiry omitted him, and he was not
mentioned in documentation before the mid-17th century.

In 1996 the 83-year-old abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Guillermo
Schulenburg, was forced to resign following an interview published in the
Catholic magazine Ixthus, in which he was quoted as saying that Juan Diego was
“a symbol, not a reality”, and that his canonization would be the “recognition
of a cult. It is not recognition of the physical, real existence of a person.”
In 1883 Joaquín García Icazbalceta, historian and biographer of Zumárraga, in a
confidential report on the Lady of Guadalupe for Bishop Labastida, had been
hesitant to support the story of the vision. He concluded that Juan Diego had
not existed.

In 1995, Father Xavier Escalada, a Jesuit whose four volume Guadalupe
encyclopedia had just been published, announced the existence of a sheet of
parchment (known as Codex Escalada), which bore an illustrated account of the
vision and some notations in Nahuatl concerning the life and death of Juan
Diego.

Previously unknown, the document was dated 1548. It bore the signatures of
Antonio Valeriano and Bernardino de Sahagún, which are considered to verify its
contents. The codex was the subject of an appendix to the Guadalupe
encyclopedia, published in 1997. Some scholars remained unconvinced, one
describing the discovery of the Codex as “rather like finding a picture of St.
Paul’s vision of Christ on the road to Damascus, drawn by St. Luke and signed by
St. Peter.”


MARIAN TITLE - VIRGIN DE GUADALUPE



In the earliest account of the apparition, the Nican Mopohua, the Virgin de
Guadalupe, later called as if the Virgin Mary tells Juan Bernardino, the uncle
of Juan Diego, that the image left on the tilma is to be known by the name “the
Perfect Virgin, Holy Mary of Guadalupe.” The Virgin of Guadalupe is a core
element of Mexican identity and with the rise of Mexican nationalism and
indigenist ideologies, there have been numerous efforts to find a pre-Hispanic
origin in the cult, to the extreme of attempting to find a Nahuatl etymology to
the name.

The first theory to promote a Nahuatl origin was that of Luis Becerra Tanco. In
his 1675 work Felicidad de Mexico, Becerra Tanco said that Juan Bernardino and
Juan Diego would not have been able to understand the name Guadalupe because the
“d” and “g” sounds do not exist in Nahuatl.

He proposed two Nahuatl alternative names that sound similar to “Guadalupe”,
Tecuatlanopeuh, which he translates as “she whose origins were in the rocky
summit”, and Tecuantlaxopeuh, “she who banishes those who devoured us.”

Ondina and Justo González suggest that the name is a Spanish version of the
Nahuatl term, Coātlaxopeuh, which they interpret as meaning “the one who crushes
the serpent,” and that it may seem to be referring to the feathered serpent
Quetzalcoatl. In addition, the Virgin Mary was portrayed in European art as
crushing the serpent of the Garden of Eden.

According to another theory the juxtaposition of Guadalupe and a snake may
indicate a nexus with the Aztec goddess of love and fertility, Tonantzin (in
Nahuatl, “Our Revered Mother”), who was also known by the name Coatlícue (“The
Serpent Skirt”).

This appears to be borne out by the fact that this goddess already had a temple
dedicated to her on the very Tepeyac Hill where Juan Diego had his vision, the
same temple which had recently been destroyed at the behest of the new Spanish
Catholic authorities. In the 16th century the Franciscans were suspicious that
the followers of Guadalupe showed, or was susceptible to, elements of
syncretism, the importation of an object of reverence in one belief system into
another.

The theory promoting the Spanish origin of the name says that: Juan Diego and
Juan Bernardino would have been familiar with the Spanish “g” and “d” sounds
since their baptismal names contain those sounds. There is no documentation of
any other name for this Marian apparition during the almost 144 years between
the apparition being recorded in 1531 and Becerra Tanco’s proposed theory in
1675.

Documents written by contemporary Spaniards and Franciscan friars argue that for
the name to be changed to a native name, such as Tepeaca or Tepeaquilla, would
not make sense to them, if a Nahuatl name were already in use, and suggest the
Spanish Guadalupe was the original.


THE VENERATED IMAGE AS ARTIFACT - ICONOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION


 * The image features a full-length representation of a girl or young woman,
   delicate features, and straight, unbraided hair simply parted in the middle
   framing her face.
 * The subject matter is in a standing posture showing in contemplative prayer
   with hands joined and little finger separated and head slightly inclined; she
   gazes with heavy-lidded eyes at a spot below and to her right, and to left in
   viewpoint of the observer.
 * She is dressed from neck to feet in a pink robe and blue-green cerulean
   mantle, one side folded within the arms, emblazoned with eight-pointed stars
   with two black tassels tied at high waist, wearing a neck brooch featuring a
   colonial styled cross.
 * The robe is spangled with a small gold quatrefoil motif ornamented with vines
   and flowers, its sleeves reaching to her wrists where the cuffs of a white
   undergarment appear.
 * The subject stands on a crescent moon, allegedly colored silver in the past,
   now having turned dark.
 * A feathered cherubic angel with outstretched arms carries the robe on her
   exposed feet which is uncolored.
 * A sunburst of straight and wavy gold rays alternate while projecting behind
   the Virgin and are enclosed within a mandorla. Beyond the mandorla to the
   right and left is an unpainted expanse, white in color with a faint blue
   tinge. The present image shows the 1791 nitric acid spill on the top right
   side, unaffecting the subject matter’s aureola.


PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION



The portrait was executed on a fabric support of natural material constituted by
two pieces (originally three) joined. The join is clearly visible as a seam
passing from top to bottom, with the Virgin’s face and hands and the head of the
angel on the left piece. It passes through the left wrist of the Virgin. The
fabric is mounted on a large metal sheet to which it has been glued for some
time. The image, currently set in a massive frame protected behind bullet-proof
glass, hangs inclined at a slight angle on the wall of the basilica behind the
altar.

At this point, there is a wide gap between the wall and the sanctuary
facilitating closer viewing from moving walkways set on the floor beneath the
main level of the basilica, carrying people a short distance in either
direction. Viewed from the main body of the basilica, the image is located above
and to the right of the altar and is retracted at night into a small vault set
into the wall.

An intricate metal crown designed by the painter Salomé Pina according to plans
devised by Rómulo Escudero and Pérez Gallardo, and executed by the Parisian
goldsmith, Edgar Morgan, is fixed above the image by a rod, and a massive
Mexican flag is draped around and below the frame.

The nature of the fabric is discussed below. Its measurements were taken by José
Ignacio Bartolache on December 29, 1786, in the presence of José Bernardo de
Nava, a public notary: height 170 cm (67 inches), width 105 cm (41 inches). The
original height (before it was first shielded behind glass in the late 18th
century, at which time the unpainted portion beyond the Virgin’s head must have
been cut down) was 229 cm (90 inches).


TRANS-RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE




Religious imagery of Our Lady of Guadalupe appears in Roman Catholic parishes,
especially those with Latin American heritage. In addition, due to the growth of
Hispanic communities in the United States, religious imagery of Our Lady of
Guadalupe has started appearing in some Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist
churches. Additionally, Our Lady of Guadalupe is venerated by some Mayan
Orthodox Christians in Guatemala.

The iconography of the Virgin is fully Catholic: Miguel Sánchez, the author of
the 1648 tract Imagen de la Virgen María, described her as the Woman of the
Apocalypse from the New Testament’s Revelation, “clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” She is
described as a representation of the Immaculate Conception.

Virgil Elizondo says the image also had layers of meaning for the indigenous
people of Mexico who associated her image with their polytheistic deities, which
further contributed to her popularity.

Her blue-green mantle was the color reserved for the divine couple Ometecuhtli
and Omecihuatl; her belt is interpreted as a sign of pregnancy; and a
cross-shaped image, symbolizing the cosmos and called nahui-ollin, is inscribed
beneath the image’s sash. She was called “mother of maguey,” the source of the
sacred beverage pulque. Pulque was also known as “the milk of the Virgin.” The
rays of light surrounding her are seen to also represent maguey spines.


CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE



Juan Diego’s tilma has become Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural
symbol, and has received widespread ecclesiastical and popular veneration. In
the 19th century it became the rallying cry of the Spaniards born in America, in
what they denominated ‘New Spain’. They said they considered the apparitions as
legitimizing their own indigenous Mexican origin. They infused it with an almost
messianic sense of mission and identity, thereby also justifying their armed
rebellion against Spain.


SYMBOL OF MEXICO



Throughout the Mexican national history of the 19th and 20th centuries, the
Guadalupan name and image have been unifying national symbols; the first
President of Mexico (1824–1829) changed his name from José Miguel Ramón Adaucto
Fernández y Félix to Guadalupe Victoria in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Father Miguel Hidalgo, in the Mexican War of Independence (1810), and Emiliano
Zapata, in the Mexican Revolution (1910), led their respective armed forces with
Guadalupan flags emblazoned with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 1999, the
Church officially proclaimed her the Patroness of the Americas, the Empress of
Latin America, and the Protectress of Unborn Children.

In 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla initiated the bid for Mexican independence
with his Grito de Dolores, with the cry “Death to the Spaniards and long live
the Virgin of Guadalupe!” When Hidalgo’s mestizo-indigenous army attacked
Guanajuato and Valladolid, they placed “the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe,
which was the insignia of their enterprise, on sticks or on reeds painted
different colors” and “they all wore a print of the Virgin on their hats.”

After Hidalgo’s death, leadership of the revolution fell to a mestizo priest
named José María Morelos, who led insurgent troops in the Mexican south. Morelos
adopted the Virgin as the seal of his Congress of Chilpancingo, inscribing her
feast day into the Chilpancingo constitution and declaring that Guadalupe was
the power behind his victories.

New Spain puts less faith in its own efforts than in the power of God and the
intercession of its Blessed Mother, who appeared within the precincts of Tepeyac
as the miraculous image of Guadalupe that had come to comfort us, defend us,
visibly be our protection.

Simón Bolívar noticed the Guadalupan theme in these uprisings, and shortly
before Morelos’s execution in 1815 wrote “the leaders of the independence
struggle have put fanaticism to use by proclaiming the famous Virgin of
Guadalupe as the queen of the patriots, praying to her in times of hardship and
displaying her on their flags, the veneration for this image in Mexico far
exceeds the greatest reverence that the shrewdest prophet might inspire.”

In 1912, Emiliano Zapata’s peasant army rose out of the south against the
government of Francisco Madero. Though Zapata’s rebel forces were primarily
interested in land reform ‘land and liberty’ was the slogan of the uprising when
his peasant troops penetrated Mexico City, they carried Guadalupan banners.

More recently, the contemporary Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) named
their “mobile city” in honor of the Virgin: it is called Guadalupe Tepeyac. EZLN
spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos wrote a humorous letter in 1995 describing the
EZLN bickering over what to do with a Guadalupe statue they had received as a
gift.


VENERATION



The shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage
destination in the world. Over the Friday and Saturday of December 11 to 12,
2009, a record number of 6.1 million pilgrims visited the Basilica of Guadalupe
in Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the apparition.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is considered the Patroness of Mexico and the
Continental Americas; she is also venerated by Native Americans, on the account
of the devotion calling for the conversion of the Americas. Replicas of the
tilma can be found in thousands of churches throughout the world, and numerous
parishes bear her name.

Due to Mary’s appearance as a pregnant mother and her claims as mother of all in
the apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, under this title is popularly invoked
as Patroness of the Unborn and a common image for the Pro-Life movement.


FEAST DAY - 12TH DECEMBER



Each December 12th, the Mexican Catholic community of Scott County celebrates
the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This celebration commemorates the
appearance of Mary to the Mexican peasant Juan Diego in 1531. The feast day is
an important holiday in Mexico.


MASS TIME




EVERY DAYS

 * 6:00 am
 * 7:00 am
 * 7:45 am
 * 8:30 am
 * 9:00 am
 * 10:00 am
 * 11:00 am
 * 12:00 (Noon)
 * 1:00 pm
 * 2:00 pm
 * 3:00 pm
 * 4:00 pm
 * 6:00 pm
 * 7:00 pm
 * 8:00 pm


CHURCH VISITING TIME

 * Every Days : 6:00 am to 9:00 pm


CONTACT INFO


Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Plaza de las Americas 1, Villa de Guadalupe, 
Gustavo A. Madero, 07050 Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico


PHONE NO.



Tel : +52 55 5118 0500

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ACCOMODATION





HOW TO REACH THE BASILICA



Mexico City (MEX) Airport is the nearby airport to the Basilica.

La Villa-Basílica is Subway Station along Line 6 of the Mexico City Metro is the
nearby Train Station to the Basilica.


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