Hundreds of South County residents assembled in Morgan Hill Dec. 11 for a special event as St. Catherine Roman Catholic Church held its 15th annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Procession. Crowds gathered at the Community and Cultural Center more than an hour before the scheduled 11 a.m. start of the parade. Bands, choirs, marchers carrying flags and banners, and horse-riders participated in the march through downtown, completing the route at St. Catherine Church (17500 Peak Ave.).
Two concurrent Masses, in Spanish and English, with more than 1,000 in attendance were held at 12:15 p.m. Afterward, there was a great fiesta featuring mariachis, dancing and Mexican cuisine. According to Sister Silvia Frias, one of the event’s facilitators, “Everyone came to venerate Our Lady of Guadalupe and celebrate a great miracle that occurred many centuries ago.”
History has many recorded instances of appearances (“apparitions”) of the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Some well-known, more recent ones include ones in Fatima, Portugal (1917) and Lourdes, France (1858). Others are more ancient and obscure, such as the appearance in Walsingham, England (1061).
Our Lady of Guadalupe has particular significance for residents of the Americas. On Dec. 12, millions commemorate a miracle that occurred in Mexico less than 20 years after the conquest of the Aztec Empire by invaders from Spain (the “Conquistadores”).
In December of 1531, a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Juan Diego, a 57-year-old peasant on his way to pray in a chapel in the Tepayac hill country in Central Mexico. Surrounded by bright light, she addressed him in Nahuatl, his native language, and identified herself as “the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God.” She requested that Juan Diego contact the local bishop and ask that a church be built on this site, a hill northwest of what is now Mexico City.
Juan hurried to the bishop’s palace in Tenochtitlan, but after a long wait the bishop merely said he would consider the request. When Juan returned the following day, the bishop asked for proof of the apparition.
Days later, Mary granted the proof: Juan picked a bouquet of roses and wrapped them in his “tilma,” a poncho-like cloak made of rough cactus fiber, but when he opened it in front of the bishop, there was an image of St. Mary imprinted on it. Although authorities say it should have deteriorated in a mere two decades, it reportedly has shown no sign of decay in the intervening five centuries.
Today there is a great basilica built on this spot, and many accounts exist of miracles, cures and interventions attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It has become one of Christianity’s most popular pilgrimage destinations, with an average of 20 million visitors each year.
Twenty-five popes have officially honored Our Lady of Guadalupe. John Paul II visited the sanctuary four times. In 1999 he declared Dec. 12 as a Holy Day for the nations of America and dedicated the cause of the protection of life to her, especially the lives of children.
