Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the Roman Catholic Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an important celebration in Mexico. It commemorates an event which occurred on 12 December 1531.  On the 9th of December, a peasant named Juan Diego was walking from his village (Tepeyac) to Mexico City, when he saw a young woman who spoke to him in Nahuatl.  She said she was the virgin Mary and asked for a church to be built in her honor at Tepeyac.  When Juan told his bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga (1468-1548). about the visitation the bishop insisted on proof.  On the 12th, Juan returned with an image of the Virgin Mary on his cloak.  The cloak is maintained in the Basilica of Guadalupe and the shrine has become the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.