The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

We sometimes forget that there is another important holiday during the month of December for those of the Catholic faith, especially for Hispanic Catholics. If you were somewhere in the vicinity of Bald Eagle Drive on the afternoon of Sunday, December 12, you may have observed a large gathering of colorfully dressed San Marco Catholic Church parishioners, marching and dancing down Bald Eagle Drive to San Marco Road on their way to the church.

For the last decade or more, the San Marco Catholic Church has joined with their Hispanic and Mexican parishioners to celebrate the Feast of Guadalupe, an important holiday within their cultural heritage. The Feast of Guadalupe celebrates the Virgin Mary and her appearance on December 9, 1531, to a peasant named Juan Diego on a hilltop outside Mexico City. 

The Virgin Mary requested that a shrine be erected on the site of her apparition, the hilltop of Tepeyac near Mexico City, where she first appeared before Juan Diego in 1531. The request was initially denied by the Bishop, who requested proof from Juan Diego. After returning four times before the Virgin Mary, she instructed Juan Diego to collect roses from the top of the hill, place them inside his cloak, and return to the Bishop. Diego followed her instructions. When he met with the Bishop, the roses dropped from his cloak, displaying an image of Mary inside, and removing all doubt from those present.

The much-celebrated pictorial image of the Virgin Mary on the actual tilma (peasant’s cloak) worn by Juan Diego is displayed at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Each year a celebration of the miracle is held honoring the events with prayer, song and historical dancers who demonstrate the cultural heritage of the Mexican people as huge crowds make the pilgrimage to Mexico City.

On December 12, local Hispanics carried the image of the Virgin Mary from their starting point at Kretch’s Restaurant to the San Marco Catholic Church, where they displayed the statue on the alter during Mass. They adjourned to the San Marco Parish Hall, where the group enjoyed sharing their culture and the local celebration of the Feast of Guadalupe.