Mexico City:

A historic number of 13 million pilgrims are expected to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe at her shrine in Mexico City in recent days. A December 8 statement issued by the authorities confirmed that more than 13 million pilgrims will visit the Marian Shrine as the Catholic Church celebrated the feast day of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe on December 12.

The head of the Monitoring and Verification Department in the Mayor's Office, Aurea Melina López Martinez, said, “From the first [December] to today, we have had an influx of 350,000 pilgrims. By the end of the operation on the 12th, we are expecting more than 13 million pilgrims.”

In a message, the Archdiocese of Mexico said that after three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebrations at the Basilica are back to normal. They further added that the newly appointed rector of the basilica, Father Efraín Hernández Díaz, has extended "a warm welcome to all pilgrims who will visit the Morenita del Tepeyac in the first days of December."

The bishop also conveyed gratitude to all pilgrims for their recent proximity to the Guadalupana and wished that the Lady of Guadalupe would never stop illuminating their journeys with her protection and love.

According to figures from the Mexico City Government, despite several health limitations, the Mexican capital saw 12.5 million pilgrims at the Shrine of the Virgin of Tepeyac in 2022.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Risk Management and Civil Protection in Mexico City released safety guidelines for these days because it is one of the biggest pilgrimages in the world.

The day celebrates the apparition of the Holy Virgin to SAint Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill. Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant who converted to Catholicism, saw Our Lady in 1531. Diego informed the bishop that Our Lady had instructed him to build a church on the hill where she had appeared. But at first, no one believed him; instead, a supernatural sign was required to establish her identity. Our Lady performed the miracle by having roses grow on the hill in the winter, then arranged the roses in Diego's tilma(tunic). As soon as the bishop accepted him, a church was erected on the hill, as a result of which millions of Aztec people underwent mass conversion.