Dec. 12--Tens of thousands traveled by foot, bicycle and car to the Maryville Academy campus in Des Plaines on Friday for the annual overnight celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Auxiliary Bishop Alberto Rojas presided over the opening Mass on Friday evening inside the academy's gymnasium. Hundreds of worshippers of all ages trickled into the room over the course of the ceremony, which was punctuated by song at regular intervals. A brass band played festive tunes outside, on the north end of the Maryville campus, to a predominantly Latino crowd gathered near the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine. The relatively warm weather offered a respite for the worshippers, who in years past braved freezing temperatures to attend the mostly outdoor celebration.
The hourslong event is a family tradition, said Des Plaines resident Leticia Mancilla. She said many of her relatives also volunteer at the yearly celebration and on a regular basis at the shrine.
"We don't consider it a holiday," Mancilla said of the event. "We consider it a birthday for the Virgin Mary. It's a party, a celebration."
This year was a particularly special celebration for her, Mancilla said; it marked the first Our Lady of Guadalupe event for her 1-year-old daughter, Valentina. She said last year's cold weather prevented the two from attending.
The Mass celebrated by Rojas also included a re-enactment, performed by children enrolled in Catholic programs offered by the administrators of the shrine, of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, an Aztec who converted to Catholicism while he was traveling near Mexico City in December 1531.
"When the Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego, she told him to go to the Spanish bishop and deliver her message," Rojas said.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, an aspect of the Virgin Mary, wanted a church built in a very specific place, he said. The bishop asked for a miracle to prove the truth of Diego's story, Rojas said. Diego returned with a bouquet of Spanish roses in the dead of winter, and when they fell from his apron an image of the Virgin was seen on the cloth, he said. Centuries later, Diego became the first indigenous person from the Americas to reach Roman Catholic sainthood when he was canonized in 2002.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which the Spanish bishop ordered built, is referred to as the most visited Catholic shrine in the world.
While an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 worshippers celebrated the Dec. 12 feast day in Des Plaines, millions more honored the event in Mexico, said the Rev. Adan Sandoval, director of the Chicago Archdiocese's Hispanic council. Sandoval celebrated the 12:30 a.m. Mass with the thousands gathered early Saturday at the shrine in the Chicago suburb.
"For Mexicans in particular, Our Lady of Guadalupe is an icon of identity," he said. "Even for those who don't practice their faith, Dec. 12 is always going to be very important."
John Smyth, former longtime executive director of Maryville Academy, opened the academy's chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe worshippers in 1987. In the 1990s, an outdoor shrine was built, and the event later came under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Sandoval said worshippers from all over Chicago and its suburbs travel to the annual celebration, and some journey from as far away as Milwaukee and Indiana.
"People come from everywhere -- they'll be driving and also riding their bicycles," he said.
After the opening Mass, Mancilla stood outside the gym in the concessions tent with her brother and her daughter wrapped in blankets in a stroller. She was waiting for her husband, who was traveling by bike to the event with a cohort of fellow churchgoers from St. Stephen Catholic Church in Des Plaines.
The family, she said, would celebrate through the early morning hours of Saturday. They would never consider leaving before midnight, Mancilla said.
Staying through to see the celebrations until the morning "is worth it," she said.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
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