The Virgin of Guadalupe was also celebrated at Notre Dame de Paris this December 12

The feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe was also celebrated in the restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this December 12, the day of the Empress of America.

The Mass in honor of La Morenita del Tepeyac, as she is also known, was celebrated at 6:30 pm (local time), within the framework of the octave for the reopening of the most important church in France.

A notable place in this celebration is the chapel where an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is enthroned, which was not damaged during the April 2019 fire.

This Thursday the mariachis also returned to the Notre Dame Cathedral, who sang Las Mañanitas to the Virgin of Guadalupe, as is usually done in the Basilica in Mexico City.

Martín Muñoz Ledo, a Mexican who considered it “an honor and a joy” to participate in the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame on December 7 and in the first Mass on Sunday the 8th, the day of the Immaculate Conception, was also present at the Eucharist of this Thursday in the Parisian cathedral.

Muñoz Ledo, who is studying a doctorate in history at the Sorbonne, was in charge of reading the First Reading of the Mass, taken from the book of Isaiah.

“For me it is a pride that we can celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe at Notre Dame. It is a great joy that we can celebrate it in another place other than Mexico, that we can live Mexican traditions outside the country and show the world that there are different ways of living the faith,” the young Mexican told ACI Prensa.

“I know that not only in Paris is Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrated, but in places like Lourdes, where there is a space in the basilica, or in Taiwan, where almost more than 10 years ago a mosaic was placed outside the parish of the Filipinos,” he added.

The Mexican altar boy also highlighted that “it is a great joy to be able to count on our Mother in all parts of the world.”

How did the Virgin of Guadalupe get to Notre Dame?

The weekly From Faithof the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico, explains that in 1938 the bishops of Mexico began the procedures to enthrone an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Notre Dame.

To achieve this, the Mexican prelates wrote to the venerable Pope Pius XII asking for his authorization, something that Pope Pacelli granted. However, due to World War II, the enthronement would not occur until April 26, 1949.

The ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard, then Archbishop of Paris; Mons. Luis María Martínez, Archbishop of Mexico in those years; and the Nuncio to France, Mons. Angelo Roncalli, who years later would become Pope John XXIII.

Where is the chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Notre Dame?

The chapel of the Virgin of Tepeyac is located in the area behind the main altar, in the area opposite the sacristy of Notre Dame.

In the inscription that appears next to the chapel to explain the image of the Mother of God, the following can be read in French, English and Spanish: “Our Lady of Guadalupe, morning star, guide us along the path of faith, of hope and charity.”

Two masses are usually celebrated in the cathedral: at 10:30 am and at 6:30 pm (local time). Vespers, the afternoon prayer in the Church, is said at 5:45 p.m.

Some decades later, on September 25, 2013, an image of San Juan Diego, the Indian on whose tilma the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was impregnated, would be placed in the chapel.

In the chapel there was also an image of the Lord of Miracles, the most important devotion in Peru, which is also celebrated in Paris.