The Basilica occupies the site where, on December 9, 1531, a poor indian named Juan Diego repeatedly 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 the Virgin for proof, she instructed him to collect the roses that began blooming in the rocky soil at her feet. He gathered the flowers in his cloak, the Virgin carefully arranged them, and Juan Diego returned to the bishop.When he unfolded 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 are at a loss to explain.
So heavy was the flow of visitors--many approaching for hundreds of yards on their knees--that the old church, already fragile and insufficient to handle them, was replaced with an audacious new Basilica.
The miracle cloth now hang behind bulletproof glass above the altar of the new Basilica.
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