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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2005 
Millions Journey to Pay Their Respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe
 Associated Press
| | Folk dancers perform at the Basilica of Guadalupe on the day comemmorating the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. Thousands of pilgrims visited the Basilica to worship one of the most venerated patron saints in the world. {AP) |
Mexico City – Wearing long feather headdresses, Aztec-style dancers spun in circles to beating drums Monday as millions of worshippers converged on Mexico's Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe to honor Latin America's patron saint.
Mexico City officials estimated more than 4 million pilgrims journeyed to the basilica in Mexico City to celebrate the appearance of the virgin before Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531.
Police arrested 51 alleged gang members for rowdy behavior and disrupting the crowd, the Secretary of Public Security said in a news release. But the celebrations were generally peaceful. News reports initially said the detained were Central Americans, but police later said they were from Mexico.
Many of the worshippers came from remote villages, walking for days to reach the basilica and then crawling on their knees across its cement plaza to thank the virgin. Many credit the virgin with curing diseases, among other miracles.
The basilica, the most important Catholic shrine in the Americas, was built next to the hillside where the virgin is said to have appeared and where Indians had worshipped an Aztec mother goddess centuries ago.
By papal decree, the Virgin of Guadalupe is patroness of all the Americas, particularly of Latin America. Her image was imprinted on his cloak, which has been preserved and remains on display at the basilica.
In 2002, John Paul II canonized Juan Diego as the first Indian saint of the Americas, part of efforts by the church to counter Protestant gains in the traditionally Catholic region. |
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