IN HONOR OF MARY.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

He was a nobody. She was the Queen of Heaven. In Mexico almost half a millennium ago, no one would have figured that Catholicism's most revered female figure would appear to an impoverished Indian.

So when Juan Diego came down out of the hills in 1531 and reported the astonishing news to the local bishop in Mexico City that he had seen the Virgin Mary, the religious leader scoffed. Like many doubters, the bishop wanted a sign.

He got one in spades, and 400-plus years later, the story is told and retold this time of year. Dec. 12 is the official feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe, as the apparition has become known.

In Catholic churches from the tip of Chile to the Arctic Circle, Hispanic parishioners will honor Guadalupe with a mass and feast.

The reason is simple, said Simon Padilla, a Eugene man who will perform today with a troupe of traditional Mexican dancers at St. Mary Catholic Church. The Indians of that period were disenfranchised citizens. Mary's miraculous appearance to one of them gave them hope and comfort, he said.

In 21st century terms, it was an inclusive gesture, a reaching out from the woman considered the Mother of God to people treated like dirt by the Europeans who had invaded and conquered Central America.

Here's how the story goes: In 1531, Juan Diego, a member of the Nauhua tribe, saw an apparition of Mary as he traveled from his village to Mexico City to attend Mass. A recent convert to Catholicism, Diego was stunned that she spoke in his dialect and shared his dark complexion.

She asked him to tell the local bishop to build a temple on the hill, a place where she could minister to the people there. Diego did as she bid him, but found a skeptical bishop and returned to her and suggested she find a more suitable mouthpiece.

But Mary didn't let either of them off the hook. She sent Diego back with more entreaties for the bishop, and when he insisted on a sign that her message was real, Diego returned with a bundle of delicate rose blossoms, unheard of there in the dead of winter. What really dumbfounded the bishop was an image of Mary that miraculously appeared on the robe Diego carried the flowers in.

The first sanctuary was built in 1533. The visitation became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe, and subsequent reports of miraculous events at the location have inspired generations of Mexican Catholics. The first written version of the story appeared in the 1560s. Devotion to this version of Mary has grown in the United States, and in 1988, Dec. 12 became the official feast day for Guadalupe here.

During his tenure as pope, John Paul II visited the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City three times. In 2002, Juan Diego became a saint.

John Paul's affinity for the Guadalupe story makes sense, said the Rev. Mark Bachmeier, pastor at St. Mary in Eugene. Because he grew up in Poland, a nation with its own unique brand of spiritual practices, Pope John Paul recognized the value of local traditions, Bachmeier said.

Regardless of its origins, deep devotion to Mary connects Anglo and Hispanic Catholics, Bachmeier said. Attendance at Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe has grown each year for the past several years and Bachmeier expects "door to door, wall to wall" attendance this year.

For Maria de Cano, who will attend and perform traditional dances at the celebration, it's an opportunity to acknowledge both tradition and spirituality.

"We can show the faith we have in the Virgin," she said.

FEAST DAY CELEBRATIONS

Local churches will offer Masses for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Sunday: St. Mary, 1062 Charnelton St., Eugene, 8 p.m.

Monday: St. Alice, 1520 F St., Springfield, 6:30 p.m.