On December 12, Catholics celebrate the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the hill of the Tepeyac. Millions of devotees visit the Basilica of Guadalupe every year. A short summary will be given in the following paragraphs.
In Catholicism it is stated that Virgin Mary appeared four times before Juan Diego and one more time before Juan Diego’s uncle, Bernardino. The first apparition occurred on December 9, 1531 and it is said that an Indigenous peasant named Juan Diego experienced a vision of a young woman at a place call the Hill of Tepeyac which later became part of the Villa de Guadalupe, in
a suburb of Mexico City.
According to many of this Catholic accounts, the woman spoke to Juan Diego in his native
language, Nahuatl. She identified herself as Virgin Mary, “mother of true deity.” Also, it is said that she asked for a church to be built at that place in her honor.
After that, Juan Diego went to talk to the archbishop Juan de Zúmarraga to tell him what had
happened. The bishop didn’t believe him at all and on that same day Juan Diego saw the young
woman for a second time. To make the story short she kept on telling Juan Diego to keep
insisting.
On December 10 th he talked to the archbishop for the second time and Juan Diego was instructed
to go the Tepeyac Hill for a truly, acceptable miraculous sign to prove her identity. When Juan
Diego returned to the hill, the third apparition, he told her what the archbishop had said. Then
she told him that she would give him the proof the next day, December 11.
Furthermore, on December 11 Juan Diego’s uncle; Juan Bernardino had fallen sick and Juan
Diego had the responsibility to attend him. During the early hours of December 12, Juan Bernardino’s condition worsen and Juan Diego headed to Tlatelolco to get a Catholic priest to hear Juan Bernardino’s confession and help minister him on his death-bed.
Juan Diego was ashamed with the Virgin because he failed to meet her on Monday December 11
and to prevent being late he took a different route and the Virgin intercepted him and asked him
where he was going. This was the fourth apparition.
To make this short, the Virgin instructed Juan Diego to gather Castilla flowers from the hill
which were rare on winter season. The curious thing is that these flowers were not from Mexico.
Then, the Virgin arranged the flowers in Juan Diego’s cloak (tilma) and when Juan Diego went
to talk to the archbishop Zúmarraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor and on the
piece of fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
To finalize, this day is important because the Catholic congregation from different parts of the
world go to their nearby church and give thanks or pray for their special causes. People
sing the “Happy Birthday song” to the Virgin and end the celebration with some delicious
tamales and a hot drink “Champurrado.”
*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US
Kommentare