BIOGRAPHY OF JUAN DIEGO AND INFORMATION ON SHRINE OF GUADALUPE

VATICAN CITY, JUL 31, 2002 (VIS) - Blessed Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin whom John Paul II will canonize in the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe was an Indian born in 1474. The name Cuautlatoatzin means 'eagle that speaks.'

Although he was not a slave and owned land on which he built a house, he had humble origins. He was a farmer and made blankets to sell.
After Brother Toribio de Benavente preached among the Indians, Cuauhtlatoatzin converted to Christianity along with his wife between 1524 and 1525. He then took the name Juan Diego and his wife Maria Lucia; when she died in 1529, he moved with his uncle Juan Bernardino to Tolpetlac, located 14 kilometers from the church of Tlatilolco in Tenochtitlan.

On December 9, 1531, during one of his journeys by foot, crossing forests and villages to go from his house to Tenochtitlan, the Virgin Mary appeared to him for the first time, speaking to him in his native nahuatl in a place now known as 'Chapel of the Little Hill.' Our Lady asked him to build in the same place a church in her honor in order to be able to give her love, help and compassion to men and women. At the Virgin's request, Juan Diego informed the bishop who did not believe him unless he brought him proof.

Three days later, the Virgin appeared to the Indian again and told him to go up to the summit of Mt. Tepeyac where he would find roses from Castilla which did not grow on the mountain, and to bring them to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened out before the prelate the cloak in which he had put the roses, there was an image of Our Lady miraculously impressed in it. It is the same image that has been venerated for almost 500 years later in the shrine of Guadalupe.

Juan Diego died in 1548 at 74 years of age and has become one of the most popular subjects of devotion in all of Latin America. In 1737, the Virgin of Guadalupe was proclaimed Patron of Mexico and in 1910 Patron of the Americas. In 1935, the Phillipines also proclaimed her their patron. John Paul II elevated Juan Diego to the altars in 1990.

The present shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is located 15 kilometers from Mexico City in the same place where the old basilica was constructed in the 16th century and used until the middle of the 20th century. When the foundations of the basilica gave in, posing a danger to the faithful, the Mexican Episcopal Conference decided to start the construction of a new basilica. The first stone was set in place on December 12, 1974 and the complex, the work of architect Pedro Ramirez Vasquez, was inaugurated two years later.

Our Lady of Guadalupe today is the biggest and most visited Marian shrines in the world; each year 20 million pilgrims visit it. From the outside, it looks like a circular tent in the desert, in memory of the tabernacle of Moses at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and is lined with dark green copper sheets of (the color of the Virgin's cloak). The inside of the church is covered in Canadian pine (6,000 square meters), the floor is made of Mexican marble and in the central column, lined with planks of cedar covered in sheets of gold, lies a fragment of Juan Diego's cloak with the image of Our Lady.

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