MARIAN anniversaries     MAY

May 29

Santa María de Santa Anita, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico

Sometime before 1542, when the village of Atlixtac in west central Mexico became the pueblo of Santa Anita, a sick Franciscan friar went there. He sought medical help from a native convert, a healer named Justina, but soon died. The friar's belongings passed to the curandera, among them a finely carved cedar statue of the Virgin. Justina developed a practice of praying before the image when treating patients, and watching its complexion: rosy and radiant if the patient would recover, darkened if death were near. In that case, she would recommend the sacraments of the church. Many of the cures were considered miraculous. When Justina died, the Franciscan friars took custody of the statue and made it an object of public devotion in their hospice chapel in Santa Anita. Merchants traveling to Guadalajara who stayed at the hospice spread the devotion around the region. This is the story of the Virgin of Santa Anita as recorded in oral tradition and local Franciscan documents.   

Historians believe that the statue was originally an Immaculate Conception image, standing on the crescent moon without the child. Around 1700, the Virgin of Santa Anita began to be celebrated on August 15 as Our Lady of the Assumption. Around 1800, the image acquired an infant and candle in addition to the moon, becoming Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, celebrated on February 2, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin or Candlemas.

In 1918, Our Lady of Santa Anita acquired another title, Abogada de los Enfermos, Advocate of the Sick. Spanish flu was devastating the village when the survivors carried the statue in procession through every street. There were only two more deaths after that, and the epidemic stopped.

The statue of Santa María de Santa Anita, Advocate of the Sick, was crowned by diocesan authority in 1988, and by papal authority on May 29, 2004.

Candlemas remains a huge fiesta in Santa Anita. Festivities begin nine days before, on January 24. Thousands of poinsettias line the route from the highway to the sanctuary. On February 1, the Entrada de la Cera (Wax Entrance) takes place: a parade of pilgrims brings votive offerings of giant candles, sacred vessels, perfumes, and adornments for the statue, such as jewels, garments, and wigs made from the hair of young women whose prayers were answered. On February 2 a procession bears the Virgin of Santa Anita along a red carpet of some 300,000 flowers cut from the poinsettias lining the route.

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