"Our Lady of Guadalupe"

This Sunday the weather wasn't very nice, it was cloudy and chilly but we still decided to check out something new that we haven't seen yet. So we took a pesero from Reforma all the way to the church complex dedicated to "Our Lady of Guadalupe", which is in La Villa the north part of the city. This particular worship of Saint Mary is extremely important for Mexicans for religious and historical reasons.

The story goes that in 1531 a Mary appeared to a Native American at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of what is now Mexico City. She identified herself as the virgin Mary. She made a request for a church to be built on the site, and submitted her wish to the local Bishop. When the Bishop hesitated, and requested a sign, the Mother of God obeyed without delay and sent her native messenger to the top of the hill in mid-December to gather an assortment of roses for the Bishop. She also left an image of herself imprinted on the natives' tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth, which should have deteriorated in 20 years but apparently shows no sign of decay 476 years later. This revelation was equally important for the Spanish conquerors in their colonizing project and for Mexican Indians in their quick and peaceful turn to Catholicism. Millions of Mexicans travel to see the miraculous place and attend a mess here.

There are three big churches and a few chapels on the site. The oldest they started to build in 1531 and finished only in 1709. But since the ground was weak (like everywhere in the city) the basilica was slowly sinking and in the 1970s a new, more spacious and modern basilica was built to replace it. Today both are open to visitors but the masses are held only in the new building. If you walk further up to the very top of the hill via a series of stairs there is also a third, smaller church. What was most interesting to me was the incredible dedication of the crowd to Mary, instead of Jesus. All altars have Mary on them while Jesus stays in the background. Also, there are two statues in the old basilica which show the Virgin Mary as a child and a baby girl. They seem to adore Mary already as an infant here, something I haven't seen or heard of anywhere else.

As a consequence of this cult's importance, Mary is now the Queen of the Americas, a patriot of the whole continent. Since the first Hungarian king, St. Stephen also offered the country to the Virgin Mary she is very important for Hungarian catholics also, so the Mexican worship of her resonated very well with me.