Archbishop of Toledo Bles

The Archbishop of Toledo and Primado de España, Mons. Francisco Cerro Chaves, blessed and inaugurated a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, “Queen of Hispanity”, built in the field of shepherds in Bethlehem, West Bank (Palestine), where according to the tradition Los Angeles announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus.

According to a communication Extended by the Spanish Archbishopric, Mons. Cerro Chaves was expected to preside over the Mass in the Chapel, accompanied by Fray French Patton, custodian of the Holy Land, among other priests, and with the assistance of the Spanish pilgrims who accompany the Archbishop of Toledo from April 4 to 6 in his journey through the holy places.

The Prelate also blessed a ceramic mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which was prepared in the Toledo towns of Talavera de la Reina and Puente del Arzobispo, and which refers to Pastor Gil Cordero, who found the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe buried, and the pastors and devotees looking for their intercession.

Why build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the Holy Land?

The building of the chapel is part of the jubilee of the Virgin of Guadalupe, held between 2020 and 2022. As explained by the Archbishop of Toledo In his Sunday letter on March 9 From this year, within the framework of that celebration “it was proposed as one of the signs, build an external chapel in the field of shepherds, in Beit Sahur, a kilometer and a half of the Basilica of Bethlehem.”

For their construction contributed the faithful of Toledo and the dioceses of Mérida-Badajoz, Coria-Cáceres and Plasencia, as well as other institutions from various parts of Spain.

By explaining the reasons for the construction of the chapel, in its March letter, Mons. Cerro Chaves stressed that it will be “an external chapel for more than one hundred and twenty pilgrims, in the field of shepherds, where it is always Christmas”.

It will also be, he said, “a meeting place for all Spanish language pilgrims” and stressed that “with this chapel it extends, also in the Holy Land, this dear devotion of the entire Universal Church: Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Extremadura, queen of Hispanicity.”

The miraculous finding of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura

According to tradition, in the thirteenth century, in Extremadura (Spain) the Virgin Mary asked Pastor Gil Cordero to seek his image buried next to the Guadalupe River.

According to tradition, the image would have been carved in the workshop of San Lucas Evangelista, taken to the current Spanish territory, but hidden under the ground near the Guadalupe River in the seventh century, during the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

After the finding of Pastor Gil Cordero, the current Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, one of the most important Marian Devotion Centers, became.