Our Lady of Guadalupe

In December 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac. She spoke to him in his own language, Nahuatl, called herself his mother and asked for a church. As a sign for the bishop, she had him gather roses in winter. When Juan Diego opened his tilma before the bishop on December 12, the roses fell and her image was printed on the cloth. Millions of Indigenous people were baptized in the years that followed.

Pope Pius XII called her Patroness of the Americas, and in the United States her day is ranked as a Feast. Parishes across the country sing Las Mañanitas to her at dawn, hold processions and matachines dances, and many pray to her for mothers and unborn children. The Basilica in Mexico City is the most visited Marian shrine in the world.