Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
Our Lady of Zapopan is the patroness of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco (Mexico).
Origin and History
The conquistadors arrived in the region in 1530, accompanied by Franciscan missionaries. In the year 1541 the town of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Tzapopan (or Our Lady of the Conception of Zapopan) was founded, under the Spanish crown. The shrine was built in 1690.
A statue with indigenous features
The natives didn't think twice about the origin of the Madonna and recognized her as their own.
In fact, it had been brought by the conquistadors, but it was so light that it didn't look like the other statues from Spain. Measuring 34 cm high, it was as dark as the natives. It probably was blackened by the smoke of candles, or its varnish could have been affected in the dark, being wrapped in linens under the sails that had long covered it up. But the most probable explanation is that it was made by artists from Michoacan before embarking on a long journey and eventually wend its way to Zapopan...
Several titles
Our Lady of Zapopan is also known as the Virgin of Expectation, the General, and The One from Zapopan.
Feasts days and other events
Since 1734, each year from June 13 until October 4, the statue makes the rounds of all the churches in Guadalajara, and it stops for 2 or 3 days at each church, and 8 days in the Cathedral. The church that hosts the statue provides a nonstop praying presence, day and night, a source of innumerable graces.
The feast of Our Lady of Zapopan is celebrated on October 9th.
Following a procession with the statue through streets strewn with flowers, Mass is celebrated by the cardinal on the plaza of the Cabanas Institute, with the diocesan seminarians in attendance. The statue is then carried to the Cathedral to the sound of songs and the ringing of the bells. The city feels it is visited by the Virgin Mary, as in the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth over 2000 years ago.
The next day, after a farewell Mass, the statue is returned to the Basilica, which provides the occasion for a joyous 12 km procession, attended by nearly 2 million people, happy to walk with the Virgin Mary.
The visit of Saint John Paul II
In his homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Zapopan in Mexico, on January 30, 1979, Pope John Paul II first spoke about faith in Christ and Mary, then, because of that same faith-the necessity of making a commitment to life and our society.
Shrines are places of openness to God's gift, where people can experience the transcendent dimension of life, as it shines in the Virgin Mary.
The faithful come here to praise and honor God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the figure of Mary, who is united by indissoluble ties to the three persons of the Holy Trinity, as the Second Vatican Council also teaches (cf. Lumen Gentium, 53). Our visit to the Zapopan shrine, mine today, yours so many times, signifies in itself the will and the effort to approach God and to let oneself be submerged by him, by means of the intercession, the aid, and the model of Mary. (#3)
Next John Paul II addressed social issues:
She enables us to overcome the multiple ‘structures of sin' in which our personal, family, and social life is wrapped. She enables us to obtain the grace of true liberation, with that freedom with which Christ liberated every man. (#3)
This affirmation will be reiterated ipsis litteris in the Puebla Document (#281).
By showing how social and political commitment truly flows from the faith and Marian devotion, the pope continued:
From here starts too, as from its true source, the authentic commitment for other men, our brothers, especially for the poorest and neediest ones, and for the necessary transformation of society. For this is what God wants from us.
Mary is the model ... for those who do not passively accept the adverse circumstances of personal and social life, and are not victims of alienation-as is said today-but who with her proclaim that God is "the avenger of the humble" and, if necessary, "puts down the mighty from their thrones. (#3)
Mary is and remains the mistress of integral liberation: This is what we have come to learn from her. (#4)
Furthermore, she is ‘the type of Christ's perfect disciple who is the architect of the earthly and temporal city, but who, at the same time, aims at the heavenly and eternal city; who promotes justice, liberates the needy, but, above all, bears witness to that active love which constructs Christ in souls' (Marialis Cultus, 37). (#4)
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Clodovis Boff at the Pontificia facoltà teologica "Marianum" (Rome, Italy)
Synthesis by Françoise Breynaert