The Marian image comes from the shrine of San Juan de Los Lagos in Jalisco, Mexico, which draws some 6 million visitors each year. Ana Luca had fetched a tattered statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception to present it to the parents. They were abuzz with excitement. One of their stops was San Juan Bautista Mezquititln, a small town in what is now the northeastern part of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Amen! We have been married for 35 years and have two daughters. Amen. Prayer can be public or personal, spoken or silent. Rapt. In the mid-17th Century news of the miracles of the Virgin spread like wildfire through colonial New Spain and the small chapel devoted to the statue could not handle the increasing influx of pilgrims, some of whom traveled from hundreds of miles away. (220) $50.01. Any extra income generated will be donated to compassionate projects with a Catholic basis. The trapeze artists. 2021 OnePeterFive, Inc. All rights reserved. National tourism is starting to dwindle in and the towns expansion is noticeable. Your financial support is essential for the survival of Marypages. At that moment I had the sensation of someone putting a arm around my shoulder as if they were walking with me and another sensation of someone speaking to me in front of me. The caretaker of the chapel, an elderly native woman named Ana Luca Antes who was very close to her 80th year, had heard of the tragic accident before the parents arrived with the little girls body. REFERENCES (This is not a formal bibliography): Compendio de la historia de Nuestra Seora de San Juan de los Lagos by Cango Aguayo (in Spanish), Miraculous Images and Votive Offerings in Mexico by Frank Graziano. The present church, begun in 1732, was built in the Mexican baroque style. She was alive! Painting of the dead childabout to be revived. Amen. Humbly we beg you to take our petition under your special protection; yours is the power to obtain from God all graces and favors. I visited the church in San Juan, TX many years ago with my family. The Virgin statue had always been special to Ana Luca and when it was retired from the main church she kept it in her own quarters. Similar statues are still venerated in other parts of Jalisco: Nuestra Seora de Los Altos (Our Lady of Los Altos) in the town of San Francisco de Ass, Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco; Nuestra Seora de la Salud (Our Lady of Health) in Ptzcuaro; and the Virgin of Zapopan in the city of Guadalajara. On the verso, the accompanying text tells of a miracle . Wow how amazing my grandfather told me a similar story and basically had the same experience you did .thank you for sharing. Our hope is in Christ and in the resurrection of Christ. The crowd gasped in horror. Ofelia, Thanks for writing this to me. So She promised that she would crawl on her knees up to where the virgin de San Juan if he got better , well he did get better and now he is 51years old.but my mother in law never went through with the promise she made.my question is can that broken promise affect my husband.because ever since I met him he claims that he feels like he has had bad luck all his life.even until this day things always seem to go wrong for him . One of those who suffered grievously was the martyr, San Pedro Esqueda Ramirez (1887-1927), who was born in the town. Example of ex-voto (testimonial giving thanks), Martyred priest St. Pedro Esqueda (from San Juan de los Lagos). Although the towers werenot completed until 1790, the Virgin was installed in the new church in1769. San Juan de los Lagos, as did all of Mexico, suffered during the fierce, anti-Catholic revolution of the 1920s. (Submitted photo) In the end, we all want the same, for friends and loved ones to live healthy happy lives, to end suffering and sadness, for goodness to triumph over evil and for the light from above to shine down on this Earth. They say that when someone dies they say their life flashes before them. As a result of this miracle, there was a steady increase in the numberof pilgrims who came to the Virgin, not only Indians, but Spanish and mestizoas well. We ask that you would watch over all those who are sick, especially those in the hospital or nursing homes. Traveling image of Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos Oct. 25-28: St. Francis Xavier Parish, 4245 S. Acacia Ave., Pico Rivera, CA 90660 Nov. 1-6: San Gabriel Mission, 428 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776 Nov. 7-11: Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, 14815 Paramount Blvd., Paramount, 90723 Who were they? Jose Maria Azpiazu, O.M.I., became pastor of the parish of St. John the Baptist in San Juan, Texas. Thank you for sharing this powerful story. Soon the church became a place of pilgrimage for many Mexican Americans in Texas; on weekends hundreds of pilgrims would come to San Juan to pray. The present edifice is the third in the history of the shrine. Rio Valley Switching, Union Pacific Intermodal are the nearby train stations to the Basilica. He had ordered it from the Tarascan Indians of Patzcuaro, Michoacan, who were renowned throughout the country for the sculpting of religious images. The Reverend commissioned a reproduction of the venerated statue inspired by the original image residing in San Juan de Los Lagos and placed it in the San Juan Chapel. You know, because it is a prayer, it is a Thanksgiving, it is a petition, it is a family praying there. It got to the point that I felt as if fear, happiness, sorrow, anger were all one draining from my body as if it was being pulled from me. I think anyone who reads this and knows about the Virgin will agree: Your husband needs to go to San Juan de los Lagos and leave something there for her. Jesus is a model of prayer for us. In 1949, Rev. The psalms are prayers we sing; they have been a part of the Church's communal prayer since the earliest days of the Church. Amidst her parents' and the inhabitants' great sorrow, the small body was shrouded and taken to the chapel for a funeral vigil. Never! answered the saint. We thank you for your love and care for us, especially during times of need. The result of this phenomenon of offering physical objects as thanks is a room from floor to ceiling of devotional folk art, from the crude to the ornate. The first director, Father Joseph Azpiazu, realized that the shrines of Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and San Juan de Los Lagos in Jalisco, were both too far from Texas for Hispanics, particularly of South Texas and the Valley, to use them. Sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century the statue was modernized by being enclosed in a frame and draped with clothing. The star of the entourage was a six-year-old girl. Looking from the portico at the right side entrance to the basilica, onto the adjacent street. Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, St. Pedro Esquada, All photography on the website is by Mary Hansen, OUR LADY OF OCOTLAN, Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico. In 1972, Bishop John J. Fitzpatrick separated the administration of the Shrine from the parish. A special message will be read welcoming . Cristina Campo and the Monsters of Traditionalism, Why the Pope Praises Modernist Architects, The Schismatic Trads Were Right? She told me everything about the church & showed me the, Your email address will not be published. She writes from Ontario, Canada. In all of Mexico, this room at the Basilica of the Virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos probably houses the biggest concentration of religious folk art outside of the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. Well, of course they were angels, explained Ana Maria, who lived to be 110 years old. In its place is a magnificent Baroque cathedral-basilica which is home to four large paintings by the 17thcentury Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens. The parish priest gave him permission to take the statue to the regional capital. About 20 inches (50 cm) tall, the statue was made by the Purpecha Indians of the state of Michoacn using an indigenous technique called titzingueni, in which a frame of wood is covered by a paste of corn pith and orchid juice, and then coated with gesso and painted. San Juan de los Lagos, as did all of Mexico, suffered during the fierce, anti-Catholic revolution of the 1920s. The girls hands began trembling. This festival is attended by more than a million people, many of them walking, from all over Mexico. In 1623, an acrobat traveling with his wife and children stopped in . Chicago, IL (September 11, 2019) - Parishioners of San Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio Parish will gather to celebrate the arrival of the statue of Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos from Jalisco, Mexico on Thursday, September 12 at 10 a.m. at Humboldt Park, on the northwest side of the park near North Ave. and Kedzie Ave. in Chicago, with a prayer service. The girls hands began trembling. The original littleadobechapel is no more. These miracles are continuing to the present day. The crowd stared spellbound. I was feeling real strange. Many of us may face a crossroads in our lives where we thought out actions and decisions have brought us to places we never imagined. The crowds grew, and in 1954 the construction of a larger shrine was completed and dedicated by Father Azpiazu. You have come to us as a manifestation of love and mercy. Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, 400 Virgen de San Juan Blvd, San Juan, Texas, TX 78589, United States Phone No. Copyright 2023. Sixteen years after its construction, a tragic event on October 23, 1970 destroyed the entire Shrine. The clowns. I know the room you speak of. the moment I had those sensations I saw my Dad (who died when I was 5) and brother (who died tragically in a car accident when I was 15) and I began to cry and I couldnt control it. To heighten the suspense of their show, the father of the acrobatic family instructed that daggers facing upward should be inserted into the dirt beneath their performance space, which was routine for them to do. In this votive exchange the person will leave behind at the shrine a physical representation of the favor or miracle granted. And they have never stopped coming. You should go with him for support. Like the tilma of Juan Diego, the statue should have disintegrated into a powder-like substance in a few short years. Years later after I was widowed I had moved to my new home which was newly built in New property. I just saw her, I think. The original little adobe chapel is no more. After preparing the body and wrapping it in burial cloths, the grieving parents brought the child's body to the chapel of Our Lady of San Juan for burial. Dont be ridiculous, Ana Lucia! bellowed a skeptic. Dont be ridiculous, Ana Lucia! bellowed a skeptic. The rosary contains a drop of holy water from the spring in Lourdes. It remains today in a building on the same site of the original miracle, incased in glass and with two silver angels flying above it holding a banner boldly proclaiming in Latin, Mater Immaculata ora pro nobis. People leave and they go back home different than the way they came, because there is hope. This translates in English to Immaculate Mother pray for us., Since the story of the acrobats daughter in 1643 there have been tens of thousands of reports of miracles, intercessions and favors granted that have been attributed to the Virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos. To you we entrust our families, our friends and benefactors and especially those for whom we pray. This statue had been brought to the village in 1542 by a Spanish priest and at the time of the accident it was nearly 90 years old. For many years. I was with my girlfriend. as I turned to my girlfriend, I called out babe. Reciprocation is nevertheless always required and when no terms are stated it is likely to take the form of a shrine visit to give thanks in person. 3rd Sunday after Easter: Heat up the iron! This year marks its first time back in LA since 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The original image is a popular focus for pilgrims and is located in the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, 122 kilometers (76 mi) northeast of the city of Guadalajara.
