marian anniversaries     january

January 6

Inmaculada Concepción del Guarda Viejo, Guatemala City, Guatemala

"And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11). The visit of the wise men to Bethlehem is one of the few mentions of Mary in the Bible and was the subject of some of the earliest representations of her in Christian art. The feast of the Epiphany, traditionally observed on January 6 in the western churches, is still celebrated as Three Kings Day in many places, although the Catholic Church has moved its liturgical date to the Sunday after January 1. In Spanish-speaking countries the Fiesta de Reyes is often combined with tributes to Our Lady. 

In Guatemala City, the fiesta of the Guarda Viejo district on January 6 closes a season of celebration that began December 7, vigil of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The statue here is perhaps the oldest of several extraordinary images  of the Immaculata in the city. It belonged to the Franciscan Third Order and its Cornadillo confraternity in the colonial period and was given to the Franciscan church in the suburban outpost of Guarda Viejo in the 1800s. After earthquakes damaged that church in 1917, the Virgin of the Cornadillo (small coin) moved to the Salesian Temple of Divine Providence. Also known as the Virgin of the Holy Kings, the beloved image was threatened in 1987 by the latter-day iconoclasm of a Salesian brother, but reconsecrated with great ceremony and indulgence by Cardinal Quezada Toruño, Archbishop of Guatemala, on January 6, 2003. On January 6 believers carry it through the streets in a Rezado, prayer procession. 

Image by Mario Ubico from La Hora, Guatemala de la Asunción, Martes 23 de diciembre de 2003, www.lahora.com.gt/03/12/24/paginas/suplemento1.htm#n4

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