Every year thousands of pilgrims travel long distances throughout the Mexican Republic to Mexico City. Learn about the reason for the faith that moves thousands of believers every December 12.
In 1736 the plague called matlazáhuatl appeared in Mexico City. He attacked the natives in a special way. Soon the number of victims reached 40 thousand. Prayers, tributes and public processions were being made, but the epidemic continued. It was then thought of invoking the Virgin of Guadalupe and declaring her patron of the city. On April 27, 1737, the solemn oath of the Patronage of Our Lady over the city was made in the viceregal palace by the archbishop-viceroy Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Eguiarreta and that same day the number of those affected began to decrease. Because the plague had also spread to the provinces of New Spain, with the approval of all of them the solemn oath of the National Patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe was made on December 4, 1746 by Mr. Eguiarreta himself, when the number of victims was already 192 thousand.
On the occasion of the coronation of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1895, the Bishop of Cleveland, Monsignor Houslmann, proposed that she be proclaimed Our Lady of America. Around 1907 Trinidad Sánchez Santos and Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra wanted to be proclaimed Patroness of Latin America. However, it was not until April 1910 that several Mexican bishops addressed a letter to the Latin American and Anglo-Saxon bishops proposing to proclaim the Virgin of Guadalupe as Patroness of the entire continent, but the Revolution of 1910 and the conflict of 1926 to 1929 they did not allow the proceedings to continue.
In April 1933, after having written again to the bishops of Latin America, favorable responses had already been received from a cardinal, 50 archbishops, and 190 bishops, so that on August 15, the Mexican Episcopate was able to publish a collective pastoral letter in which announced the proclamation of the Guadalupano Patronage over all of Latin America for the following December 12 in Rome; and that day the solemn pontificial mass presided over by the Archbishop of Guadalajara Francisco Orozco y Jiménez was celebrated in San Pedro.
Pope Pius XI attended that mass and a cardinal, five nuncios, 40 archbishops and 142 bishops were present. In the back window, called "Gloria de Bernini" a large image of the Guadalupana was placed and at night of that day the dome of San Pedro was illuminated. Thus the Virgin of Guadalupe was proclaimed as Patroness of Latin America.
