Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also the Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe) is a Roman Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary. The tradition relates that in the 16th century, on 9 December 1531, Juan Diego, a recently-converted Aztec (indigenous) peasant, had a vision of a young woman, a lady, while on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady in the vision asked him to build a church where they stood on the hill. Juan Diego told the local Bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, of the apparition; doubtful, he asked for proof. Juan Diego later returned to the Tepeyac desert hill; again, the lady appeared to Juan Diego, who told her of the bishop’s request for proof of her apparition. The lady then instructed Juan Diego to go to the hill top, where he found Castillian roses — native to Durango, the bishop’s Spanish home town — and which did not bloom in winter. Juan Diego cut the roses, placed them in the apron of his tilma cloak, and delivered them to the bishop; an imprint of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared on the tilma, formed by the soil and the Castillian roses.
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