Juan Diego

     On this day in 1531 a simple indigenous peasant convert to the Faith in what is now Mexico, had a vision of a young woman on a hill called Tepeyac near Mexico City.  He was told to build a church on that spot.  He went to the local bishop and told him of the vision, whereupon the bishop asked for some proof.  This young man, Juan Diego, went back to the spot and had another vision.  This time the lady told him to pick some roses from the nearby bush (even though it was winter and beyond the growing season).  Filling his cloak, or tilma, he went to the bishop and went to pour them out before him, but instead, there was an image of the young lady of his vision - not Spanish in features but native.  She had revealed herself as "the one who crushes the serpent" as is described in the 12th chapter of Revelation.

     This icon on the tilma of Juan Diego is on display at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.  She bears the title "Queen of Mexico" and "Empress of the Americas" and "Patroness of the Americas".

     Today the Church celebrates Saint John Diego Cuauhtlantoatzin.  He was declared "venerable" in 1987, a "blessed" in 1990, and canonized a saint in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.  In the Collect for his Mass it reads:

O God, who by means of Saint Juan Diego

showed the love of the most holy Virgin Mary

for your people,

grant, through his intercession,

that, by following the counsels

our Mother gave at Guadalupe,

we may be ever constant in fulfilling your will.

     The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is this coming Monday, December 12th.  Saint Juan Diego, pray for us and for the people of the Americas.