Our Lady of Guadalupe

12 December  ·  Feast  ·  White

She stands with her hands joined in a mantle sown with stars, the moon beneath her and an angel bearing up her hem, and the rays of her light ringed with flowers. On Saturday, 9 December 1531, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Juan Diego, a neophyte of fifty-five, as he hurried down the hill of Tepeyac to hear Mass in Mexico City; she asked that a temple be built where she stood and sent him to Bishop Zumárraga, who asked for a sign. At daybreak on Tuesday, 12 December, she met him again, told him that his dying uncle was cured, and sent him to gather roses from the rocks, though it was neither the time nor the place for roses. He carried them in his tilma to the bishop; when he opened it the roses fell, and the life-size figure of the Virgin was on the cloth. A shrine stood at the foot of Tepeyac from 1532. Benedict XIV decreed Our Lady of Guadalupe the national patron, made 12 December a holiday of obligation with an octave, and ordered a special Mass and Office; Leo XIII ordered the picture crowned in his name. The cloth that bears her is as thin as poor sacking, and she is still on it for us.

George Lee, “Shrine of Guadalupe”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (1910): newadvent.org

The Gospel of the feast

³⁹And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. ⁴⁰And she entered into the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. ⁴¹And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. ⁴²And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. ⁴³And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord. ⁴⁶And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. ⁴⁷And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Luke 1:39–47, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

In painting

The feasts of the year  ·  The Rosary