Historical Images of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City

Since we just passed the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and today celebrate the octave of Her Immaculate Conception, here are some great historical images of the famous basilica in Mexico City that houses St Juan Diego’s tilma. Our thanks to the administrators of the Facebook page Tradicionalismo Católico for their kind permission to reproduce these.

The first Mass celebrated after the restoration of public worship in June of 1929, which had been interrupted during the Cristero Rebellion.

A statue of Fray Juan de Zumárraga OFM (1468-1548), the first bishop (and later archbishop) of what was then called the diocese of Mexico, to whom St Juan Diego communicated the revelation imparted to him by the Virgin on the hill of Tepeyac. The statue is set up in front of the high altar and the tilma in imitation of the statue of Pope Pius VII in a similar  pose that used to be in the confessio of St Peter’s basilica in Rome, and that of Bl. Pius IX which is still in the confessio of Santa Maria Maggiore.

In 1931, during works to enlarge the church for the fourth centenary of the apparition, the tilma was moved to this temporary altar.