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The saints

St Juan Diego

A cloak full of roses in December, and an image that is still there.

Feast: 9 December · 16th century · Tepeyac, Mexico

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The main altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, with the image on the tilma framed in gold.

José Luiz, 2024. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Tepeyac Hill, Mexico, Saturday 9 December 1531

A fifty-five-year-old convert is hurrying down Tepeyac hill to hear Mass in Mexico City.1

The Blessed Virgin appears to him and sends him to the bishop, asking for a church where she stands.1

The bishop wanted a sign. Juan Diego went back up the hill in December, and found roses.

01St Juan Diego

The tilma

She told him to go up to the rocks and gather roses; he knew it was neither the time nor the place for roses, but he went and found them.1

He carried them to the bishop in his tilma, a long cloak worn by the Mexican Indians.1

As he unfolded his cloak the roses fell out, and the image of the Virgin Mother was glowing on the poor tilma.1

02St Juan Diego

The humble Indian

St John Paul II canonized him at the Basilica of Guadalupe on 31 July 2002, calling him the simple, humble Indian who contemplated the face of Our Lady of Tepeyac.2

The main altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, with the image on the tilma framed in gold.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, where the tilma hangs above the altar. José Luiz, 2024. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pilgrimages have been made to the shrine almost without a break since 1531.1

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Shrine of Guadalupe”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Pope St John Paul II, Homily for the canonization of Juan Diego, 31 July 2002. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.