The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe was the most important Marian shrine

Shrines to the Virgin Mary

In the culture and practice of some Christian Churches - mainly, but not solely, the Roman Catholic Church - a Shrine to the Virgin Mary is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion...

 in the medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 kingdom of Castile

Kingdom of Castile

Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...

. It is revered in the monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe

Santa María de Guadalupe

The Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe is a Roman Catholic monastic establishment in Guadalupe, Cáceres, a province of the Extremadura autonomous community of Spain It was one of the most important monasteries in the country for more than four centuries...

, in today's Cáceres

Cáceres (province)

The province of Cáceres is a province of western Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Extremadura. It is bordered by the provinces of Salamanca, Ávila, Toledo, and Badajoz, and by Portugal....

 province

Provinces of Spain

Spain and its autonomous communities are divided into fifty provinces .In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian , sing. província.*Galician , sing. provincia.*Basque |Galicia]] — are not also the capitals of provinces...

 of the Extremadura

Extremadura

Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...

 autonomous community

Autonomous communities of Spain

An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...

 of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of three Black Madonna

Black Madonna

A Black Madonna or Black Virgin is a statue or painting of the Virgin Mary in which the Virgin Mary is black. The term was especially applied to those created in Europe in the medieval period or earlier...

s in Spain. The statue was canonically crowned in 1928 with a crown designed and crafted by Father Felix Granda

Felix Granda

Rev. Felix Granda y Alvarez Buylla was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and sacred artist who founded the liturgical art workshop Talleres de Arte and directed its activities until his death...

.

Shrine

The shrine housed a statue reputed to have been carved by Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist was an Early Christian writer whom Church Fathers such as Jerome and Eusebius said was the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles...

 and given to Saint Leander

Leander of Seville

Saint Leander of Seville , brother of the encyclopedist St. Isidore of Seville, was the Catholic Bishop of Seville who was instrumental in effecting the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic kings Hermengild and Reccared of Hispania .-Family:Leander and Isidore and...

, archbishop of Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, by Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...

. When Seville was taken by the Moors

Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

, a group of priests fled northward and buried the statue in the hills near the Guadalupe River in Extremadura

Extremadura

Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...

. At the beginning of the 14th century, a shepherd claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him and ordered him to ask priests to dig at the site of the apparition. Excavating priests rediscovered the hidden statue and built a small shrine around it which evolved into the great Guadalupe monastery.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrims began arriving in 1326, and in 1340, King Alfonso XI

Alfonso XI of Castile

Alfonso XI was the king of Castile, León and Galicia.He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313...

 took a personal interest in the shrine's development, attributing his victory over the Moors at the Battle of Rio Salado

Battle of Rio Salado

The Battle of Río Salado was a battle of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile against sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of the Marinid dynasty of Morocco and the Nasrid ruler Yusuf I of the Kingdom of Granada.-Campaign:...

 to the Virgin's intercession. Our Lady of Guadalupe, along with Santiago de Compostela

Saint James the Great

James, son of Zebedee was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was a son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of John the Apostle...

 and Nuestra Señora del Pilar became rallying points for the Christian Spaniards in their reconquista

Reconquista

The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

 of Iberia.

Cult

In 1386, the shrine was commended to the Hieronymites

Hieronymites

Hieronymites, or the Order of St. Jerome , is a common name for several congregations of hermits living according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with supplementary regulations taken from the writings of the 5th-century monk and scholar, St Jerome. The principal group with this name was founded in...

, who turned the popular devotion to the figure into a genuine cult. Copies of the statue were venerated in satellite chapels.

Mexico

The name of the Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...

 derives from the Extremadura

Extremadura

Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...

, homeland of many conquistador

Conquistador

Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...

s, including Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...

.

The Philippines

The Augustinians helped spread the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe (Extremadura) in the Philippines through mission works. The assignment of priests from Caceres, Spain contributed to the development of yet another devotion in this new Spanish territory. In 1843, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe arrived in the Visayan province of Bohol. The image was brought from Spain by Augustinian Recollects who were charged to take care of ecclessiastical functions in Bohol after the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th century.

Miracles of the Virgen de Guadalupe of Loboc

Loboc documented so many miracles which they attribute to the loving intercession of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Foremost of which happened on November 26, 1876. As immortalized in a painting on the ceiling of Loboc Church by renowned Cebuano painter Ray Francia, a flood plunged Loboc wreaking havoc to the whole town. The water went up submerging the altar of Loboc Church but leaving the image unscathed as the waters calmly stopped at the base of the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe. The Lobocanons added that despite the extent of the flood, they were left unharmed and no casualties recorded.

Many devotees from other places in the Philippines also attend the Maytime festival to honor the Virgen de Guadalupe and to ask for her miraculous intercessions. Other childless mothers who went to Loboc in May to dance the bolibongkingking before her image return to her shrine offering their child, the fruit of their supplication to God through the prayers of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Some, whose prayers have been answered return to Loboc in thanksgiving and present new vestments and metal ornaments to the Virgen de Guadalupe, the devotional patroness of Loboc.

The Bolibongkingking Festival

The people of Loboc honor the Virgen de Guadalupe every 24th of May. During this festival Lobocanons celebrate the feast with music and merrymaking. The celebrations start nine-days prior to the May 24 feast with the GOZOS or a ballad of praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary sung in vernacular or Latin before the start of novena masses.

On the eve of the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe, a fluvial parade takes place in the idyllic Loboc River. During the activity, the image is brought on a floating restaurant while Marian songs, marches and processional hymn

Processional hymn

A processional hymn is a chant, hymn or other music sung during the Procession, usually at the start of a Christian service although occasionally during the service itself. The procession usually contains members of the clergy and the choir walking behind the processional cross...

s are played. Dignitaries from both church and state participate in the procession to relive the moment when the cholera epidemic ceased when Lobocanons brought the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe on a fluvial procession in the 1840s.

Derived from the sounds of indigenous musical instruments used, the drums (bolibong) and gongs (kingking), the Bolibongkingking Festival is celebrated during the feast proper of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Believed to be both a healing ritual and dance of thanksgiving, the faithful devotees of the Blessed Mother dance to the attractive rhythm of drums and gongs before her image swaying their hands and lifting their petitions or thanksgiving to God through the intercession of the Virgen de Guadalupe.