December 12 | Our Lady of Guadelupe

Patronage: the Americas, Mexico, the unborn

“Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.”

December 12th marks the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the anniversary of the day that St. Juan Diego showed his unbelieving bishop his tilma, or cloak, with a miraculous image of Our Lady impressed on it. 

Three days earlier in the year 1531, the Blessed Mother appeared for the first time on Tepeyac Hill to Juan Diego, a simple widowed peasant and Catholic convert, and asked him to implore his bishop to build a shrine there in her honor. 

When the bishop expressed his incredulity about the Marian apparition, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Mary then told him to climb a hill where he would find roses blooming even though it was winter.

Juan hurried to the bishop and opened his tilma for the beautiful roses to fall out. However, an even greater miracle occurred when a vibrant, heavenly image of Mary dressed as an Aztec princess as she had appeared to Juan also appeared on his open cloak. 

The miraculous roses and Juan’s tilma were enough proof to convince the awestruck bishop, who commissioned the construction of the shrine. The shrine now houses the miraculous image and is a popular pilgrimage site to this day.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!