Our Lady of San Juan del Valle

Marian Advocation of San Juan (Texas)

The existence of a Marian advocation officially recognized as "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" en San Juan, department of Texas, Colombia. All that is clearly documented concerns the Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine, ubicada en San Juan, Texas, United States, very close to the border with Mexico, and deeply linked to devotion to the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos from Jalisco, Mexico.

Main data

Origin and history

The existence of a Marian advocation officially recognized as "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" en San Juan, department of Texas, Colombia. All that is clearly documented concerns the Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine, ubicada en San Juan, Texas, United States, very close to the border with Mexico, and deeply linked to devotion to the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos from Jalisco, Mexico.

According to the documented history of the American sanctuary, devotion began in the mid-20th century, when priests and faithful of Mexican origin carried an image of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos to the area of the Rio Grande Valley (Rio Grande Valley) in southern Texas (USA), and was growing until the current national and minor basilica shrine was erected in the city of San Juan, Diocese of Brownsville (United States). This basilica is today an important pilgrimage center of the Hispanic community of southern Texas, with strong influence of Mexican devotional tradition.

As for a possible local culture in Colombia under the title "Nuestra Señora de San Juan del Valle" in the town of San Juan (department of Texas, Colombia), there is no reliable documentation in ecclesial, academic or serious dissemination sources. No references appear in official pages of Colombian dioceses, or in repertories of Marian advocations, or in regular Marian sanctuaries databases. In the face of this absence, it is only possible to state that, if there is any devotion with that name in Colombia, it would be a devotion not publicly documented and not a national or international recognized sanctuary.

The image and the sanctuary

En el Valle del Río Grande (Texas, USA) United States), the advocation venerated in the Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine es una image of the Virgin Mary inspired by the Virgin of St. John of the Lakes. It is, according to the usual descriptions of the latter, a small picture of package (three-dimensional table) wood with the Virgin standing, holding the Child Jesus, richly dressed with túnica y manto cubiertos por una European adorned, and crowned as Queen, according to the baroque iconography novospana. This iconographic typology is repeated in the copies and reproductions that are venerated in the Texan sanctuary.

The main temple is the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Sanctuary (Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine), situado en San Juan, Texas, United States. It is officially recognized as minor basilica y National sanctuary by the Church in the United States. It is a modern complex, with great capacity to host pilgrims, with basilica, explanades, pilgrimage spaces, areas for confessions and popular devotions. Architecically, it responds to contemporary functional criteria, designed for large concentrations of faithful, rather than a concrete historical style.

For the case of San Juan, department of Texas, Colombia, no consta un recognized Marian sanctuary under the title "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" or official descriptions of a specific headline image. Therefore, a safe description of the Colombian image and temple cannot be provided without conjectures.

Sponsorship and coronation

In the context of San Juan, Texas., the Virgin venerated in the Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine is considered de facto Spiritual Pattern of Many South Texas Hispanic Faithfulespecially of Mexican origin, who come to the national sanctuary. However, it does not include in the documents consulted which have been proclaimed official employer of a specific diocese, city or region in the United States under the exact title "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" beyond its recognition as National sanctuary.

With regard to San Juan, department of Texas, Colombia, does not contain a decree of canonical patronage nor an official proclamation that recognizes "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" as patron of municipality, diocese or region.

As for a canonical coronation (official concession by the Holy See or by pontifical delegation), does not contain a documented canonical coronation neither for a hypothetical image entitled "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" in Colombia, nor for the advocation under that title in relation to the shrine of San Juan del Valle in the United States (although the original image of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos in Mexico does possess its own history of coronation, different from this fact sheet).

Party and devotion

En el San Juan del Valle national sanctuary (Texas, USA) United States)the liturgical and devotional life revolves around the venerated Virgin Our Lady of San Juan del Vallein continuity with the tradition of Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos. However, the sources consulted do not explicitly offer a unique date of liturgical holiday of its own different from that of the Virgin of St. John of the Lakes or other Marian festivities, so at this point, is not with certainty a universally recognized main holiday date for "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle" as an independent title.

It does, however, document an intense movement of pilgrimages of the faithful, especially from the Hispanic and Mexico-American community of southern Texas, who go all year round to the national sanctuary for masses, confessions, Marian processions, promises and thanksgiving. The sanctuary receives large flows of pilgrimsparticularly on weekends, Marian parties and strong times (Lent, Easter, Guadalupe, etc.); however, the specific participation figures vary according to the sources and no reliable and official annual number is available at this time.

In case of San Juan, department of Texas, Colombiano official data on a fiesta patronal mariana specific under the title "Our Lady of San Juan del Valle," not on processions, pilgrimages or associated popular traditions, beyond possible local celebrations not recorded in accessible sources.

Link to the Rosary

In available materials on the Basílica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine (Texas, USA) does not explicitly point to a private or exclusive association between this vocation and the prayer of the Rosary (for example, an own Rosary fellowship or an official Rosary feast linked to the sanctuary). So, from the historical - documentary point of view, there is no specific and unique link with the Rosary beyond the general practice of Marian piety.

However, in the pastoral experience of the Marian shrines, and especially in those who host a wide Hispanic community, the Rosary occupies a central place like Marian prayer par excellencein which the mysteries of Christ's life are meditated with the Virgin. In a sanctuary like San Juan del Valle, where so many faithful come with their family, migration, work and health needs, the Rosary is usually converted into:

– una contemplation school de los misterios de Cristo, vividos con María; – un road of intercession, en el que se confían a la Virgen las dificultades diarias; – un unit loop between the faith inherited from the peoples of origin (Mexico and other Latin American countries) and the life present in the diaspora.

Although there is no record of a "proper" rosarian tradition of this advocation, devotion to Our Lady of San Juan del Valle is fully inserted into the great Marian current of the Church, in which the Rosary, praying in family, community or pilgrimage, helps the faithful to persevere in faith and to imitate the virtues of the Virgin Mary.