Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12th. She first appeared on December 9th, 1531. According to the account, the Virgin Mary told Juan Diego, an Indian convert, to tell Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to build a chapel. Bishop Zumárraga asked Diego for a sign as proof that it was truly the Mother of God. Our Lady instructed Diego to gather some roses in his tilma [tradition attests that Mary arranged the roses in the tilma herself] and present them to the bishop. As Diego did this, the roses fell to the floor, revealing the miraculous image of Mary as she appeared in real life. All present praised her intercession and believed.

See Ten Amazing Facts About the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In 1910 Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared Patroness of Latin America, and in 1945 Pope Pius XII declared her to be the Empress of all the Americas. O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son's most holy Mother, grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and of peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

A Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Mystical Rose,

make intercession for holy Church,

protect the sovereign Pontiff,

help all those who invoke you in their necessities,

and since you are the ever Virgin Mary

and Mother of the true God,

obtain for us from your most holy Son

the grace of keeping our faith,

of sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life

of burning charity, and the precious gift