St. Juan Diego

For our final Saint of November 2015, I will feature one whose feast day is coming up shortly, St. Juan Diego. 

Juan Diego was a native born Mexican.  He and his wife were among the first to be baptized after the arrival of the main group of Franciscan Missionaries in Mexico in 1524. Sources say that his wife died two years before the apparitions.

On Dec. 9, 1531, while making his way to the Franciscan Mission station for religious instruction, Juan Diego passed by the hill at Tepeyac and he encountered the Virgin Mary who revealed herself as the ever-virgin Mother of God and instructed him to request the bishop to erect a chapel in her honor.  Juan delivered the message, but the bishop told him to come back another day after he had time to reflect on the request. Juan Diego encountered the Blessed Virgin again on his return trip and told her of the failure of his mission.  He suggested that she needed to recruit someone of greater importance, but she insisted that it was he that she wanted for the task. Juan agreed to repeat the request, which he did the following day. The bishop asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was truly from heaven.  Juan Diego returned immediately to Tepeyac and, encountering the Virgin Mary reported the bishop's request for a sign; she condescended to provide one on the following day (December 11).

By December 11, Juan Diego's uncle had fallen ill and Juan was obliged to attend him. Early the next day he set out to get a priest to hear his uncle's confession and minister to him on his death bed. In order to avoid being delayed by the Virgin, Juan Diego took another route around the hill. The Virgin intercepted him and asked where he was going.  Juan Diego explained his mission, and the Virgin gently chided him for not having had recourse to her. In the words which have become the most famous phrase of the Guadalupe event and are inscribed over the main entrance to the Basilica of Guadalupe, she asked: "No estoy yo aqui que soy tu madre?" (Am I not here, I who am your mother?). She assured him that his uncle had recovered and told him to go to the top of the hill and collect the flowers growing there as the sign requested by the bishop.  Juan Diego did as he was told. On gaining admission to the bishop in Mexico City later that day, Juan Diego opened his mantle, the flowers poured to the floor, and the bishop saw they had left on the mantle an imprint of the Virgin's image which he immediately venerated.

The image is still venerated to this day in the Basilica that was built on the sight.  Juan Diego's feast day is Dec. 9.