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Ocotlán, Tlaxcala, Mexico (1541)

   
History

Traditionally Approved

40 - 999 1400 - 1499
1000 - 1099 1500 - 1599
1100 - 1199 1600 - 1699
1200 - 1299 1700 - 1799
1300 - 1399 1800 - 1899

Vatican Approved
Bishop Approved
Coptic Approved
Approved for Faith Expression
Apparitions to Saints
Unapproved Apparitions

Our Lady of Ocotlán

Our Lady of Ocotlan

Summary

A young native Tlaxcalan man named Juan Diego Bernardino was going to draw water from a river believed at the time to have healing properties. Our Lady appeared to him and lead him to a special spring of water. She promised him that an image of herself could be found within a tree. The Franciscans discovered the image and placed it in the San Lorenzo monastery.

Timeline

1541

A young native Tlaxcalan man named Juan Diego Bernardino was going to draw water from a river believed at the time to have healing properties. Juan Diego was a convert to Catholicism who was known for his piety and was a topil (altar server) at the Franciscan monastery. There was an epidemic in the region and he wanted to bring the water home to his family, who were sick.

As he came to a hilltop, he encountered a beautiful lady who asked him, "God bless you, my son, where are you going?"

Juan Diego Bernardino explained that he was going to bring medicinal water to the sick. The lady responded, "Follow me closely. I will give you another water with which you will extinguish the contagion and cure not only your family but all who drink of it, for my heart is always inclined toward the lowly and will not suffer to see such things without remedying them."

The woman led Juan Diego Bernardino down the steep hill as night began to fall. At the bottom was a pine grove with a spring of water, that still exists today. The lady told Juan Diego that whoever drank the smallest drop would be restored to perfect health. She then told him that he would find an image of her in the pine grove where they were standing, a "true portrait of her perfections and clemencies, and that he should advise the Franciscan fathers to place it in the church of San Lorenzo " that stood on top of the hill.

1541

Juan Diego took water from the spring and hastened off to cure the sick. Later he went to the Franciscan monastery to tell the friars of his experience. The friars observed the expression on Juan Diego's face as he told the story and believed him, possibly also because he was a regular altar server there.

1541

That evening they followed him back to the pine grove. In the light of the sunset, the trees seemed to burn without being consumed. One tree was particularly fat, so they opened it up with a hatchet and found the statue of Mary as Juan Diego had said they would. They prepared a litter from tree branches and flowers and lifted the statue up onto their shoulders to carry it to the church of San Lorenzo.

1588

The earliest mention of the shrine is found in the writing of the Tlaxcalan historian Diego Muñoz Camargo, who makes reference to there being a Franciscan missionary centre in Tlaxcala in 1588 or 1589 called Santa María Ocotla. In an earlier book he refers to a nacimiento desta agua ("source of this water") where there is a cross in a group of forest trees that evokes great devotion.

1644

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, then Archbishop of Puebla, made a visit to the shrine, although he does not mention a statue. He wrote in his own account of the visit that he recited the rosary there and praised the religious devotion of the inhabitants of the town.

1670

Diego de Osoria de Escobar, Archbishop of Puebla, appointed Juan de Escobar as caretaker of the shrine. Juan de Escobar is responsible for constructing the shrine with its present floor plan, with the chancel, transept, and cupola.

1689

The first mention of the statue occurs in a history of the city of Tlaxcala, published by Don Juan Benaventura Zapata y Mendoza.

1691-1716

The second caretaker, Francisco Fernández, was in charge of the shrine. He installed the retablo dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

 

The third caretaker, Manuel Loayzaga, was the man responsible for giving the shrine the appearance it has today. He put in the magnificent central retablo with the great silver niche in which the statue stands as well as the pulpit. The pièce de resistance however is the camarín, the eight-sided chapel behind the niche that is used as the Virgin's dressing room. It is decorated with "solomonic columns", paintings from the Life of the Virgin, portraits of Doctors of the Church who defended the Virgin Mary, and at the centre, the great round table on which the statue stands as it is being dressed.

1746

The Shrine of Our Lady of Ocotlan was raised to the stature of Our Lady of St. Mary Major, the first Church of Mother Mary in Rome and one of the Basilicas that have a Holy Door which the Pope opens every 25 years. At that time, the Benedict XIV granted Indulgences, privileges and Apostolic indults to the faithful venerating the image of Our Lady of Ocotlan.

1747, 1750

Loayzaga put the final, "official" version of the Ocotlán legend into print, publishing two editions of his book Historia de la milagrosíssima imagen de Nuestra Señora de Occotlán.

 

Pope Clement XIII declared a feast day to be celebrated on a Sunday in July, in honor of this apparition. The apparition is remembered each year in February, with the faithful walking in solemn procession, their Queen on their shoulders, just as their ancestors had done before them.

1906

The statue was given a pontifical crown.


Description of the Virgin


The statue of the Virgin of Ocotlán is the centrepiece of the shrine. It stands 148 cm tall and is reportedly made of pine, although this is not certain. It is carved as wearing a long tunic and mantle. The tunic is gold, with red trim. The mantle was blue at one time, but the paint has faded, revealing more gold beneath it. The statue stands erect, looking straight ahead, hands folded in front of the chest. The carved hair is brown and a replica of the image in the Museo de la Memoria shows it to have seven plaits of hair in back.

Normally, the statue is dressed in a cape. of which it owns many, and a large crown that was given to the statue in 1975. It also has pierced ears, earrings, and many finger rings in addition to the scepter it carries. A silver crescent moon with a "man in the moon" face looking up at her has been put at the base of the image to confirm its identity as an Immaculate Conception.

Devotion to the Virgin of Ocotlán is concentrated around the various processions that take place several times during the year. The statue leaves its niche over the altar on three fixed dates: New Year's Day and the first and third Mondays in May. The Monday processions are referred to as the bajada (descent) and the subida (ascent) respectively.

Messages

Our Lady of Ocotlan: "May God preserve you, my son! Where are you going?"

Juan Diego Bernardino: "I am taking water from the river to my sick ones who are dying."

Our Lady of Ocotlan: "Come with me and I will give you water to cure the disease. It will cure not only your family, but all who drink of it. My heart is ever ready to help those who are ill, for I cannot bear to see their misfortune."

"Take as much as you wish of this water and know that those who are touched by even the smallest drop will obtain, not merely releif from their illness, but perfect health."

"Tell the religious for me that in this place they will find my image. It will not only manifest my perfections, but through it I shall generously bestow favors and kindness. When they find the image, they are to place it in the chapel of San Lorenzo."


Miracles, Cures, and Signs


The faithful are still drawing water from the miraculous spring (now a well), believing and in that believing miracles still abound through the intervention of Our Lady of Ocotlan and the water she blessed.

The statue of Our Lady of Ocotlan is considered to be carved miraculously from one piece of wood from the ocote tree.


Approval

The Shrine of Our Lady of Ocotlan, in 1746, was raised to the stature of Our Lady of St. Mary Major, the first Church of Mother Mary in Rome and one of the Basilicas that have a Holy Door which the Pope opens every 25 years. Pope Benedict XIV granted Indulgences, privileges and Apostolic indults to the faithful venerating the image of Our Lady of Ocotlan. Pope Clement XIII declared a feast day to be celebrated on a Sunday in July, in honor of this apparition. The apparition is remembered each year in February, with the faithful walking in solemn procession, their Queen on their shoulders, just as their ancestors had done before them.

Five Popes have venerated Our Lady of Ocotlan from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century: Pope Clement XII (1735), Pope Benedict XIV (1746), Pius VI (1799), Saint Pius X (1906) and Pius XII (1941).

The Virgin of Ocotlán is the patron saint of Tlaxcala and the neighbouring state of Puebla.

Shrines

The shrine of the Virgin of Ocotlán is now a parish church. It is located on a hill overlooking the city. From the zocalo go two blocks north on Independenia to Guridi y Alcocer. Turn right and when the road forks, take the left fork uphill to the church.


Books and Videos

Loayzaga, Miguel de. [i]Historia de la milagrossisima imagen de Nra. Sra. de Occotlan. Mexico: Viuda de Joseph Hogal, 1750.

Martinez Baracs, Rodrigo. La secuencia Tlaxcalteca. Origenes del culto a Nuestra Senora de Ocotlan. Mexico City: INAH, 2000.

Nava Rodriguez, Luis. Historia de Nuestra Senora de Ocotlan. 2nd edition. Tlaxcala: Editoria de periodicos "La Prensa" 1975.

Nava Rodriguez, Luis.. Historia de Nuestra Senora de Ocotlan. Revised and expanded edition. Tlaxcala: Editoria de periodicos "La Prensa" 1983.

Nutini, Hugo. G. "Syncretism and Acculturation: The Historical Development of the Cult of the Patron Saint in Tlaxcala, Mexico". Ethnology, 15 (1976)


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