Guadalupe is the virgin and the most famous object of worship in Mexico.
Its origin is established by oral tradition, procedurally proven in 1666 as ancient, broad and uniform and also by written tradition, contained in numerous reliable documents of Indians and Spaniards that establish the miraculous fact of its appearance in Tepeyac, in 1531, when the Indian Juan Diego had the miraculous vision of her presence. It is said that in Juan Diego's ayate, the image of the Virgin appeared painted when he showed Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, the shipment of roses that he brought. His cult, constantly approved by the church, that nothing has objected to the historicity of the apparitions, it has always been increasing, above all because of the belief in the favors that it has given to the Mexican people. In this sense, there are two culminating moments: that of her proclamation as Patroness of the Mexican Nation, in 1737, when she made a terrible plague that ravaged the population disappear and her coronation as Queen of Mexico in 1895.
The guadalupana has been the bastion, the reason for being and the image of many characters and episodes in history: Bernal Díaz del Castillo admired the devotion that the natives had for him, his banner was the flag of the Insurgents who achieved the independence of Mexico and also a bastion in the Cristero Revolution.
Pius X declared her "Celestial Patroness of Latin America" in 1910 and Pius XII called her Empress of the Americas in 1945 and said that "on the tilma of poor Juan Diego ... brushes that were not from here below left a very sweet image painted."
Guadalupana popular devotion is an important part of the cultural and social life of our country and the pilgrimages to its sanctuary are constant and massive.
Its temple, originally erected in the precise place indicated by Juan Diego, was first a humble hermitage, the Ermita Zumárraga (1531-1556). Later, Bishop Montúfar expanded it and it was called Ermita Montúfar (1557-1622) and later, at the foot of the latter, the Ermita de los Indios was built, which is the current parish in 1647.
This hermitage had at first a chaplain, then it was a vicarage, a parish and an archipresbyterial parish. A new temple was built, much larger and more sumptuous from 1695 to 1709 and in it the Collegiate Church and the Basilica (1904) were erected.
The population built around this sanctuary was erected in Villa in 1789 and in city -Ciudad Guadalupe, Hidalgo- in 1828.
