December 12th is right around the corner, and with that, I thought I would offer some information about the importance of this day to the Catholic faith and Christian Faith. This story originates from Mexico, in the early 1500s.



An Aztec man by the name of 'Juan Diego' was going to mass on December 9th, 1531 when he had his first encounter with the Virgin Mary (Also known as Virgen de Guadalupe to the Mexicans) to where she asked of him to visit the bishop and talk with him about building a shrine upon the hill Virgen de Guadalupe stood upon. In his first attempt, he was not taken seriously, and he was to no avail.

On December 12th, 1531, Juan Diego was visited again by Guadalupe upon the same hill, and spoke to him in his native tongue (Aztec) there again, and told him to carry roses in his tilma (cloak) and present the request to the bishop once more. Behind the hill he spoke to Guadalupe, he found plentiful amounts of roses even though it was wintertime. He picked them and carried them in his tilma to the bishop again. When he opened his cloak to present the roses to the bishop, a depiction of Virgen de Guadalupe was upon his cloak. The bishop took this as his queue, and made a shrine in her honor, as requested by Lady Guadalupe herself.



To this day, the original building still stands high upon the Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City, and the cloak, even though it's hundreds of years old, it has not disintegrated even though it is made of a plant-based substance. The tilma is found in the Basilica de Guadalupe and hangs high above the altar, untouched and still colorful from years past. The cloak itself has been studied, and yet no science can prove as to why it still remains.



(If I got any of my information wrong, tell me in the comments!)



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