Illinois shrine on site of former child-care facility draws pilgrims

Published: 2005-10-03

DES PLAINES, Ill. (CNS) -- For more than 15 years, Our Lady of Guadalupe has been drawing pilgrims to the grounds of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines. In 1988, the campus, which once housed the largest residential child-care institution in Illinois, took in a statue of the patroness of the Americas brought from Mexico City by Joaquim Martinez, a parishioner and staff member at Our Lady of the Brook in Northbrook. Like the roses that pilgrims bring, the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe took root at Maryville and grew to the point that up to 3,500 worshippers attend Mass at the site every weekend, and upward of 60,000 come to observe the Dec. 12 feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and related festivities. "The first year, for 'Las Mananitas' (the 5 a.m. traditional devotion on the feast day) we had maybe 12 people," Martinez told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. Today, the hill that forms the centerpiece of the shrine is surrounded with colorful flowers, real and artificial, and rows of candles in glass containers line the raised outdoor sanctuary. On the back of the hill, a cave holds an image of the risen Lord, with more candles, photographs of babies in incubators and sonograms, hospital bracelets and, stacked near the entrance, crutches. "Those were left by people who prayed for a miracle and received it," said Martinez, still a leader of the volunteer group that cares for the shrine.

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