Basilica+of+Guadalupe

[[image:P.jpg align="right"]]The Basilica of Guadalupe
Elizabeth Aman

The Basilica of Guadalupe is located in Mexico City, and is considered to be "the holiest place in all of the America's" by many Catholics. media type="youtube" key="zGP_3GJtroc" width="425" height="350" Here is the history of the Basilica, according to George and Audrey Delange.

The Basílica occupies the site where, on December 9, 1531, a poor Indian named Juan Diego saw a vision of a beautiful lady in a blue mantle. The local bishop, Zumarraga, was reluctant to confirm that Juan Diego had indeed seen the Virgin Mary, so he asked the peasant for evidence. Juan Diego saw the vision a second time, on December 12, and when he asked her for proof, she instructed him to collect the roses that began blooming in the rocky soil at his feet. He gathered the flowers in his cloak and returned to the bishop. When he unfurled his cloak, the flowers dropped to the ground and the image of the Virgin was miraculously emblazoned on the rough-hewn cloth. The bishop immediately ordered the building of a church on the spot, and upon its completion, the cloth with the Virgin's image was hung in a place of honor, framed in gold. Since that time, millions of the devout and the curious have come to view the miraculous image that experts, it is said, are at a loss to explain. So heavy was the flow of visitors -- many approached for hundreds of yards on their knees -- that the old church, already fragile, was insufficient to handle them. An audacious New Basílica, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vazquez, the same architect who designed the breathtaking Museo Nacional de Antropología, opened in 1987. (Basilica)

References: > Travel And Tour Photos And Pictures http://www.delange.org/Guadalupe/Guadalupe.htm
 * Basilica de Guadalupe Mexico City