I am a sophomore at Sully Buttes School District in Onida, South Dakota. I am currently enrolled in Ms. Stewart's Spanish II class.

For a project, we had to pick a person that was somehow important Mexico's history. I chose Juan Diego because of what he means to the Catholic Church. He lets me make some sense of the miracles that our Lord can bring to all who believe and even some who don't.

Juan Diego is on his way to becoming a saint, literally. He has been beatified, but not yet canonized.

Juan was a native Mexican who, on December 9, 1531, rose before dawn to walk fifteen miles to daily mass in Mexico City. That morning as Juan passed Tepeyac Hill he saw a beautiful woman dressed like an Aztec princess. She called to him and said that she was the Virgin Mary. She then asked Juan to tell the bishop that a church needed to be built on this hill.

The bishop didn't quite believe Juan so he asked for proof. But before Juan could go back to the Virgin Mary; he found out that his uncle was dying. Hurrying to get a priest, Juan missed his meeting with the Virgin Mary, but she found him and told him that his uncle was cured. 

She then told him to go the hill where they first met. Juan was amazed to find flowers growing in the frozen soil. He took them to the bishop. The bishop was not so shocked to see the Castillion roses (which were not grown in Mexico), but he was shocked to see the glowing image of the Virgin Mary imprinted in the inside of Juan's cloak. Soon thereafter the church was built on the hill where the Virgin Mary appeared.