ANNUAL OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE PILGRIMAGE KICKS OFF THIS WEEKEND IN VENTURA COUNTY
October 20, 2017  |  By:   |  Press Releases  |  

For First Time Pilgrim Images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego will visit parishes in the Dioceses of Orange and San Bernardino

In celebration of the 486th anniversary of the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, this year La Peregrina, a pilgrim image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, will start the annual pilgrimage in Ventura County on Saturday, October 21, with a visit to St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ojai (185 St Thomas Drive, Ojai, 93023). A welcoming procession with Mexican musicians and Aztec dancers will start at noon on the corner of St. Thomas Drive and El Roblar Drive.

The images of La Peregrina and St. Juan Diego will visit 20 designated pilgrimage churches in all five pastoral regions of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which includes Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. For the first time, the pilgrimage will reach the neighboring Dioceses of Orange and San Bernardino, where the images will be welcomed in November at one parish in each diocese.

After remaining Oct. 21-22 in Ojai, the traveling images will head to Santa Barbara County, where they will be welcomed with a Rosary prayer at St. Joseph Church in Carpinteria (1500 Linden Avenue, Carpinteria, 93013) on Tuesday, October 24. The images will then visit Sacred Heart Church in Ventura (10800 Henderson Rd., Ventura 93004) on Wednesday, October 25 and Thursday, October 26. The pilgrimage in Ventura County will end on October 28 when the images will be venerated by participants at the Día de los Muertos celebration at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard (2370 N. H Street, Oxnard, 93036), from noon to 4:30 p.m.

The pilgrimage will make its way to Los Angeles County, where the images will be welcomed by Aztec dancers on the evening of October 28 at St. Finbar Church in Burbank (2010 West Olive Avenue, Burbank, 91506), where they will remain until October 30 for veneration. Click here for the pilgrimage schedule for October in English, and here in Spanish. The schedule for November and December will be provided in early November.

The annual pilgrimage of the images serves as spiritual preparation for the 86th Annual Procession and Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 3 in East Los Angeles. The Guadalupe Procession is the oldest religious procession in L.A. It was established by Mexican Catholics who fled persecution by the Mexican government during the Cristero War in 1931. The Archdiocese’s annual celebration commemorates the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that recalls the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Saint Juan Diego at Cerro del Tepeyac (Tepeyac Hill), Mexico City, in December 1951, when she left her image on his “tilma” or cloak. Her image has been a symbol of unity, peace, compassion, and hope for people around the world.

La Peregrina, a pilgrim image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, is an exact digital reproduction of the original image in Mexico City’s Basilica, which has been blessed and touched to the original image. This year marks the 11th anniversary when the gift was hand-delivered to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Monsignor Diego Monroy, then Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City.

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