Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City

Villa de Guadalupe is a northern suburb of Mexico City on the hill of Tepeyac. It is home to the largest current with about 20 million pilgrims pilgrimage in the world. 1848 here was ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of the Mexican -American War.

Place of pilgrimage

In Villa de Guadalupe is the " Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe ." It is the most important sanctuary of Mexico and one of the most important Marian shrines in the world. Starting point of the Roman Catholic pilgrimage is a Marian apparition. The pilgrimage tradition after the Virgin Mary on December 9, 1531 at that time the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the 57 year old Indian Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac first appeared there. When Juan Diego was then the bishop, was born on his coat inexplicably an image of Mary, Mother of God. The cloak with the miraculous image of "Our Lady of Guadalupe " is still visible today.

Today we know that some elements were later painted over the image, such as the moon, the angel and the folds of the robe.

Juan Diego was beatified in 1990 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

At the site of appearance then a church was built. Since the underground plummeted, the Basilica of visitors and pilgrims had to be closed. The new basilica, designed by Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, who was ordained in 1974 and opened in 1975 is, by its size and its open architecture, very impressive. It has 10,000 seats and can accommodate up to a total of 40,000 visitors. It is thus one of the largest churches in the world. This is also important because it was at that time still banned in Mexico to hold fairs under the open sky.

The title of Basilica of the Church received because of its importance as a pilgrim church by raising the minor basilica by Pope Paul VI. in 1976.

Patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness

• Latin America, especially Mexico: Benedict XIV declared in 1754 with the Breve "Non est quidem " the Virgin of Guadalupe as Patroness of Mexico and drew the festival on 12 December by a separate measurement form and Offizium from. Leo XIII. extended the celebration of the feast of all Latin American countries. In its order, the archbishop of Mexico Alarcón y Sanchez de la Barquera crowned the miraculous image on October 12, 1895.
• The unborn.

In addition, she was told by Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli a role model for all media representatives on 12 December 2007.