Relic From Guadalupe Tilma to Tour U.S.

Zenit ^ | 2003-05-23

[nickcarraway]

to Start in Denver, End in New York

LOS ANGELES, MAY 23, 2003 (Zenit.org).- A tour is scheduled to bring a small piece of St. Juan Diego's "tilma" -- the cloth that holds the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- to nearly 20 U.S. dioceses.

The six-month "Tilma of Tepeyac Tour" is being organized by the Apostolate for Holy Relics (AHR) and co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Family Rosary is also providing rosaries for the event.

The tour will open May 30 in Denver's Immaculate Conception Cathedral, and will end Dec. 7 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

The relic, on loan from the Los Angeles Archdiocese and likely the only one in the United States, is a small piece of the tilma that was detached and sent to the archbishop of Los Angeles in 1941 by Archbishop Luis Martínez of Mexico City.

Juan Diego was canonized last July 31 in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico City. Over 5 million people attended the ceremony.

"The tour will promote devotion to the Mother of God, especially through devotion to the rosary in this year proclaimed by the Pope to be the Year of the Rosary," said Andrew Walther, national tour coordinator.

"We also hope that people will take the faith and devotion of St. Juan Diego as a model for their own lives," he added.

AHR president Thomas Serafin said the tour "will be a wonderful historical and cultural event bringing together the curious and the faithful."

AHR aims to educate the public about the saints, sponsoring devotion to and veneration of the saints, and preserving pieces of Catholic heritage.

Details of the tilma tour are at http://www.relictour.org.

[nickcarraway]

Diocese Open Close Location

Denver 30-May 1-Jun Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Hartford 6-Jun 15-Jun Knights of Columbus Museum

La Crosse 21-Jun 22-Jun Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Springfield, IL 28-Jun 29-Jun Diocesan Jubilee, State Fairgrounds

Sacramento 4-Jul 6-Jul Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

Chicago 25-Jul 26-Jul Our Lady of Tepeyac Church

Gary 27-Jul 28-Jul St. Stanislaus Church

Washington DC 9-Aug 9-Aug National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

New Orleans 30-Aug 31-Aug St. Patrick Church

Detroit 15-Aug 16-Aug TBA

Grand Rapids 17-Aug 17-Aug Shrine of St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady

Dallas 14-Sep 16-Sep Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Palm Beach 10-Oct 12-Oct Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola

Phoenix/Tucson 31-Oct 2-Nov TBA

Salt Lake 5-Nov 9-Nov St. Juan Diego High School

New York 5-Dec 7-Dec Cathedral of St. Patrick

[nickcarraway]

Tilma of Tepeyac Tour

[dsc]

This article prompted me to search the Internet for pictures and articles.

I found articles in which it was claimed that scientific methods had demonstrated that the image was not produced using paints or pigments, among other things.

And I found sites attempting to "debunk" this miracle, claiming that this scientific test or that showed it was a painted image, and setting forth several different claims as to its non-miraculous origin. These latter claims all involved deliberate fraud on the part of the Clergy.

There seem to be similar sites "debunking" everything from Fatima to Lourdes.

How in the world can a person get to the bottom of things like this? I know that miracles occur, but I'm not comfortable dismissing these purported debunkings without debunking them.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I didn't know we had this relic in Los Angeles. Any idea where it's normally kept?

[nickcarraway]

ping

[NYer]

Found these photos from the Canonization ceremony for Juan Diego. Our Lady of Guadeloupe, pray for us!

St. Juan Diego

The image of Juan Diego is carried into the cathedral by Indigenous Indians.

9,500 were present in the Basilica, and 16,000 more in the Atrium

Official Entry pass

Our Lady of Guadelupe, Patroness of the Americas

In 1531 a "Lady from Heaven" appeared to a poor Indian at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City; she identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed him to have the bishop build a temple on the site and left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth, which should have deteriorated in 20 years but shows no sign of decay 469 years later and still defies all scientific explanations of its origin.
It apparently even reflects in her eyes what was in front of her in 1531!
Her message of love and compassion, and her universal promise of help and protection to all mankind, as well as the story of the apparitions, are described in the "Nican Mopohua", a 16th century document written in the native Nahuatl language.
There is reason to believe that at Tepeyac Mary came in her glorified body, and her actual physical hands rearranged the roses in Juan Diego’s tilma, which makes this apparition very special.
An incredible list of miracles, cures and interventions are attributed to Her. Yearly, an estimated 10 million visit her Basilica, making her Mexico City home the most popular Marian shrine in the world, and the most visited Catholic church in the world next to the Vatican.
Altogether 24 popes have officially honored Our Lady of Guadalupe. His Holiness John Paul II visited her Sanctuary four times: on his first apostolic trip outside Rome as Pope in 1979, and again in 1990, 1999 and 2002.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12th. In 1999, Pope John Paul II, in his homily from the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, during his third visit to the sanctuary, declared the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent.
During the same visit Pope John Paul II entrusted the cause of life to her loving protection, and placed under her motherly care the innocent lives of children, especially those who are in danger of not being born.

[Salvation]

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

December 12, 2006

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the sixteenth century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.

When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of Mary as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531.

Comment:

Mary's appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God's preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God's love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

Quote:

Mary to Juan Diego: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place for me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I may show my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, and to those who love and seek me...” (from an ancient chronicle).