The Virgin of Guadalupe

Yesterday we decided to take a stroll through the village where we are actually staying. We noticed it on a bus ride. So we walked down to the plaza walked around a bit and went to see the local church. I like to see the churchs because they are usually very old buildings and have lots of history. Well the day we went they were decorating it with fresh flowers, lots of fresh flowers! It smelled so good. I asked the young lady who was working on the decorations what they were for, I thought maybe a wedding... she said it was for the Virgin of Guadalupe, they were celebrating her birthday or anniversary or something to do with her.

Today there will be many celebrations, we hope to go see them and get many pictures.

San Antonio Church

The history of the Virgin de Guadalupe is interesting

In 1523 just after the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan fell to Hernan Cortes and his Conquistadors, the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived to begin the religious conquest of Mexico. Among their conquest was a man baptized Juan Diego. In 1531, Juan Diego was walking to Mass over the hilss just north of Mexico City. The land there is dry and rocky. He passed a hill of Tepeyac where once sat the temple to Tonantzin, the gentle Godess of earth and corn, whose name means our mother. The Spanierds had destroyed this and all of the sacred places of the indigenous people, forbidding them to pray or worship their protecting spirits.

As Juan passed this once revered place he stopped and stood still disbelieving the heavenly fragrance and celestial music that surrounded the spot. Before him shown a blinding radience, like a glowing cloud surrounded by rainbows. An astounding vision emerged robed in blue and gold and rose-- a beautiflul dark-skinned woman declaring herself to be the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

She calmed his fears calling him "little son" and told him it was her desire to have a church built on Tepeyac hill on the very place of the fallen goddess. She asked him to realy this message to the bishop Juan de Zummaraga. It was no easy task for the humble idian to be granted an audience with the Bishop, but the persistant Juan Diego was eventually permitted to see the Bishop.

The incredulous Bishop demanded to see proof of this unlikely encounter. Juan Diego avoided Tepeyac for several days. One day he was rushing to find a priest for his ill Uncle he took a shortcut along the hill. The Virgin once again appeared and Juan Diego told her of the Bishops request. The Virgin requested Juan pick up the Castillian roses, impossible to exist in that climate, but growing in abundance at that place. he gathered them in his tilma, a rectangle of muslin worn as a cape.  She told him not to put them down until he was in the precense of the church dignatary. When he this this in the church in Tlatelolco, they saw that the front of his tilma was emblazoned with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the miraculous blossoms lay at her feet.

Juan Diegos mantle preserved in the new Basilica has been subjected to extensive analysis over the years.Experts have authenticated the fabric to be from the 16th century but not have been able to determine the type of pigment from which the image is rendered.

A miracle indeed.

The beautiful Virgin de Guadalupe

The aisles were being decorated with fresh flowers

San Antonio plaza gazebo