12 million pilgrims expected to visit Guadalupe Basilica this week

The Virgin of Guadalupe in the new Basilica / Photo credit: David Ramos / ACI Prensa

Puebla, Mexico, Dec 12, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Between Dec. 8–12, an estimated 12 million pilgrims are expected to have visited the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. In total, the number is expected to exceed 18 million visitors throughout the month of December.

The central feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12 commemorates the last day on which she appeared to the Indian St. Juan Diego in 1531. On that same day, as proof to Friar Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, the image of the Virgin miraculously appeared on the tilma or cloak of St. Juan Diego.

St. Juan Diego’s tilma is preserved intact 493 years later in the Basilicam of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located at the foot of Tepeyac Hill, attracting millions of pilgrims who come to venerate the image and whom it represents.

The attendance figures were announced at a press conference by Janecarlo Lozano Reynoso, mayor of Gustavo A. Madero, the Mexico City borough where the Guadalupe Basilica is located. Lozano highlighted the high attendance figures for the Guadalupe celebrations in December, indicating that Mexico City is positioned as the “No. 1 religious tourism center in the world.”

At the same press conference, it was announced that 11,264 officials will be assigned to guarantee the safety of the pilgrims. In addition, arrangements were made for a no-cost food service for poor pilgrims, and more than 200 doctors and nurses will be on hand for any medical needs that may arise.

Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Mexico City’s secretary of tourism, said that in the capital city “there is no time of the year when there is a greater number of tourists at one time than precisely during the Guadalupe festivities, in the days before and after.”

The tourism secretary also said that visitors will be able to tour the churches located around the basilica in the area known as the Villa de Guadalupe, including the Pocito Chapel. According to the website of the Archdiocese of Mexico, this church is the spot where one of the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe took place and where a spring was found to which “the natives came to wash their wounds,” attributing healing properties to it.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.