SAN ANTONIO • One of the Alamo city’s jewels of the West side, San Juan de los Lagos Church, officially became an archdiocesan shrine Feb. 11 following a standing room only Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez.
    According to canon law, a shrine must be a sacred place approved by the ordinary for the purpose of pilgrimage by the faithful. “By decreeing San Juan de los Lagos a shrine we are affirming the devotion of the many people who have come to this holy place to express their special devotion to Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos,” said Deacon Pat Rodgers, archdiocesan director of communications. “Additionally, by making that decree we are saying to devout people everywhere that this is indeed a sacred place, approved by the archbishop, to which they can make a pilgrimage.”
    Prior to the liturgy, Father Art Flores, OMI, pastor, and matachines led parishioners on a procession through the neighborhood after starting on the steps of Sacred Heart Chapel at Our Lady of the Lake University and concluding at the church at 3231 El Paso St.

    “Many in the archdiocese already have a great devotion to Mary, our Blessed Mother, and more specifically to Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos. Many cannot make a pilgrimage to Mexico, so they have found this San Antonio church a place to pray to Mary,” Rodgers said. “Designating it as an archdiocesan shrine will affirm the deep devotion that San Juan de los Lagos evokes in the people, and hopefully bring peace to many more who will come to this shrine of prayer.”

    According to Web information from the Marianist University of Dayton, San Juan de los Lagos is among the better known Mexican Marian shrines. The center of Marian devotion was an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, a blackened and disfigured statue which came to prominence thanks to a miracle.

    A family of trapeze artists were passing through the village situated along the Camino Real between San Luís Potosí and Guadalajara in the state of Jalísco, when the younger daughter of six years — herself an aerial acrobat — in the course of practicing fell upon the swords and daggers fixed in the ground, pointed upward to add to the thrill of danger to the trapeze act. The girl was mortally wounded, and the parents brought her body to the chapel of Our Lady of San Juan for burial. The caretaker’s wife, Ana Lucia, exhorted the parents to have confidence that the “Lady” (Cihuapilli) would bring the child back to life. She put the statue on the little corpse. The body started to move; the girl sat up, alive and unharmed. From this time on, the miracles and favors obtained through the “Virgencita” were numerous.
    The father of the girl offered to have the statue repaired. It was beautifully restored by an unknown artist.

    Devotion spread in the years following this first recorded miracle, and in 1631 a new sanctuary was constructed. A century later, in 1732, a larger temple was built, and in 1926 became a collegiate church by order of Pope Pius XI. In 1904 the image of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos was solemnly crowned. The proper feast is on Dec. 15, the octave of the Immaculate Conception. However, the principal feast is the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8. The image is very small; it measures about a foot in height. The material of which it is formed is pasta de Michoacan (glue and cornstalks) but in spite of its fragility the image has remained whole for more than 800 years. The face is dark in color, the eyes widely spaced and the traits somewhat aquiline. The hands are joined. The statue’s body is covered with a gold crown in byzantine style. Above the image are two angels of silver, supporting between them a silver banner with the inscription in blue enamel: Mater Immaculata ora pro nobis.

    “It is our hope that by decreeing San Juan de los Lagos a shrine it will bring people closer to Jesus, through his mother, Mary. San Antonio is already known for its deep devotion to Mary,” stated Deacon Rodgers.

    “We hope that because of this recognition, even more people will come to the shrine for confession, prayer and to enrich their faith in God and their devotion to our Blessed Mother.”

    Other shrines in the archdiocese include the Basílica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, Lourdes Grotto of the Southwest and Tepeyac, Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine and the Divine Mercy Chapel and the soon-to-be-constructed Shrine of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.