Virgin of Guadalupe, unknown maker from the United States

Each year, as many as 10 million people travel to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in what is believed to be the largest Catholic pilgrimage in the Americas. During the pilgrimage people visit a shrine on a hill near the place where Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have appeared to an Aztec man named Juan Diego, who converted to Christianity in 1531. Today this shrine is part of a large complex that includes several church buildings, a group of statues that portray Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego, and a large outdoor space for Catholic worship services.

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Nancy Mahaney & Sarah Schroeder At daybreak on December 9, 1531, Juan Diego, a Christian Indian, heard a voice calling him to climb Tepeyac Hill, north of the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan´ (present-day Mexico City). According to various accounts published beginning in 1648, the Virgin Mary appeared three times, each time requesting a shrine be built in her honor through which she would minister to the Indian people. The earliest written account, Imagen de la Virgen Maria, by Miguel Sanchez notes that she was “arrayed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” The imagery of the Virgin of Guadalupe reflects the syncretism of pre-conquest beliefs and practices of the indigenous people of Mexico with Catholic Marian devotion.