Our Lady of Guadalupe is the title under which the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored in connection with her apparitions to St. Juan Diego at Tepeyac in 1531. She came as the Mother of the true God and asked that a church be built where she could show her maternal compassion to all who sought her help. As Catholics, we pray this novena for her intercession, asking her to lead us closer to Christ, strengthen our faith, console the afflicted, and protect the peoples and families of the Americas.
Begin PrayingMore about Our Lady of Guadalupe
According to the Guadalupan account, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City between December 9 and 12, 1531. She identified herself as the Mother of the true God and asked that a church be built there. When the bishop requested a sign, St. Juan Diego gathered Castilian roses that had grown on the hill and carried them in his tilma. As he opened the tilma before the bishop, the roses fell and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the cloth. The tilma is now kept in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where it remains an object of Catholic veneration and pilgrimage.
The devotion became a powerful sign of the encounter between the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Christ. The Church honors Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of the Americas and celebrates her feast throughout the continent on December 12. Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Juan Diego at the basilica on July 31, 2002. This novena begins on December 3 and concludes on December 11. Through it, the faithful entrust their needs to Mary's maternal intercession and ask her to form them as disciples who bring the mercy and truth of her Son to others.
