I remember many years ago I went to the Church I think it is at Sault Saint Marie (a former Iroqua site), where four of the original Jesuit Priests are buried. And I was surprised that in that so very historical and important church there is a huge painting of " La Virgen de Guadalupe". Everyone who enters the church sees her, She's considered to be the Virgin of the Americas.

 HEy Zipote, a mi tambien me vestian de Indito, lo chistoso que en mi foto la nina que sale a la par es bien rubia la indita jejeje.

Being affiliated with a church myself, I find it very enlightening that it was to a poor, native, mexican, and not to the bishop or some other church hot shot, to whom the Virgin spoke. And although I am very happy for my manitos mexicanos, I also think that making a saint out of Diego takes away a lot of his "being an alternative voice for God" and, come think of it, sort of makes me think it's an attempt to get a hold of the faith of the people.

Anyways, it's a beautiful day for Mexico lindo, and as we have some mexicans in our community (St. Stephen's Anglican Church Spanish Congregation, en College), last sunday's mass had a lot to do with la morenita. Somebody brought an image, someone else told the story, and at the end we had some tacos and other mexican tasty foods. I wish we had had some manhanitas, though :- (

Oh and the girls who brought the image had it blessed by the priest who celebrated the mass. That was nice.

Saint Juan Diego
A Model of Humility

In April of 1990 Juan Diego was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The following month, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, during his second visit to the shrine, John Paul II performed the beatification ceremony.
On July 2002 he was canonized by the Church, during a ceremony celebrated by John Paul II, again in the Basilica of Guadalupe.
Who was this Juan Diego?

Most historians agree that Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467; and was located 20 kilometers (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).
His native name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which could be translated as “One who talks like an eagle” or “eagle that talks”.
The Nican Mopohua describes him as a 'macehualli' or “poor Indian”, one who did not belong to any of the social categories of the Empire, as priests, warriors, merchants,...but not a slave; a member of the lowest and largest class in the Aztec Empire. When talking to Our Lady he calls himself “a nobody”, and refers to it as the source of his lack of credibility before the Bishop.
He devoted himself to hard work in the fields and manufacturing mats. He owned a piece of land and a small house on it. He was happily married but had no children.
Between 1524 and 1525 he was converted and baptized, as well as his wife, receiving the Christian name of Juan Diego and her wife the name of Maria Lucia. He was probably baptized by the famous and loved Franciscan missionary Fray Toribio de Benavente, called “Motolinia”, or “the poor one”, by the Indians for his extreme kindness and piety.
According to the first formal investigation by the Church about the events, the Informaciones Guadalupanas of 1666, Juan Diego seems to have been a very devoted, religious man, even before his conversion. He was a solitary, mystical character, prone to spells of silence and frequent penance and used to walk from his village to Tenochtitlan, 14 miles away, to receive instruction on the doctrine.
His wife Maria Lucia became sick and died in 1529. Juan Diego then moves to live with his uncle Juan Bernardino in Tolpetlac, which was closer (9 miles) to the church in Tlatelolco -Tenochtitlan.

A macehualliHe walked every Saturday and Sunday many miles to church, departing early morning, before dawn, to be on time for Mass and religious instruction classes. He walked on naked feet, as all the people of his class, the macehualli. Only the higher social classes of the Aztecs wore cactlis, or sandals, made with vegetal fibers or leather. He used to wear in those chilly mornings a coarse-woven cactus cloth as a mantle, a tilma or ayate made with fibers from the maguey cactus. Cotton was only used by the upper Aztec classes.
During one of this walks to Tenochtitlan, which used to take about three and a half hours between villages and mountains, the First apparition occurred (See The apparitions page), in a place that is now known as the “Capilla del Cerrito”, where the Blessed Virgin Mary talked to him in his language, Nahuatl. She called him “Juanito, Juan Dieguito “, “the most humble of my sons”, “my son the least”, “my little dear”.
He was 57 years old, certainly an old age in a time and place where the male life expectancy was barely above 40.
After the miracle of Guadalupe, Juan Diego moved to a room attached to the chapel that housed the sacred image, after having given his business and property to his uncle; and he spent the rest of his life propagating the account of the apparitions to his countrymen.
He died on May 30, 1548, at the age of 74.
Juan Diego deeply loved the Holy Eucharist, and by special permission of the Bishop he received Holy Communion three times a week, a highly unusual occurrence in those times.
Pope John Paul II praised Juan Diego for his simple faith nourished by catechesis and pictured him (who said to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf”) as a model of humility for all of us.