After a year-long journey that began in Mexico and has continued throughout the United States, images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego, will arrive at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, their final destination, on Monday, December 12, 2022, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The images were presented to Cardinal Timothy Dolan by the Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Mexico.
Representing the fraternal and spiritual unity of New York and Mexico, the images traveled from Mexico with the Guadalupe Torch through seven states before arriving in New York.
On December 12, 2021, Cardinal Dolan announced at the Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that the gifted images will travel throughout the State of New York for one year. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of the Americas.
The images will conclude their journey and be installed at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the new chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, at a bilingual Mass on December 12, to be celebrated by Cardinal Dolan, who will be joined by bishops from Mexico and dignitaries from around the Americas. Father Javier del Castillo who was appointed U.S. Vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei in May, will be the homilist.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the Mass.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared several times to St. Juan Diego, who was an Aztec convert to Catholicism. Her final appearance to him took place on December 12, 1531, with that date eventually being established as Our Lady’s feast day.
Pope Saint John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe “Patroness of All America” in 1990