Sacred relic coming to Utah

DRAPER — It's a tiny piece of cactus fiber. And as it is carried across the country, it will stitch together at least two disparate groups: Utah teenagers in 2003 and the Aztecs of 16th-century Mexico.

"The tilma that's traveling through here,"as this half-inch-square of cloth is informally known, is a relic of St. Juan Diego. He may be just a name in much of the United States, but in Mexico he is the heroic peasant who saw a vision of Mary, the mother of God, in 1531. According to the story of Juan Diego's life, Mary's image appeared on his tilma, or cloak, and gave him the courage to stand up to the Spanish conquistadors who had overrun Mexico some years earlier. After the apparition, Mary became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico.

A piece of that 472-year-old tilma is on its way to Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, the only U.S. institution named for the Mexican saint. It will arrive, framed in glass, first at the Cathedral of the Madeleine on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and next it will spend Nov. 6, 7 and 8 at the high school.

Students at Juan Diego look forward to the tilma events for various reasons. For one, classes are unlikely to be in regular session, as droves of family members and others from across the Salt Lake Valley will visit the school. Nearly 20 percent of Juan Diego's 660 students are Latino, and many of their families are well-acquainted with Our Lady of Guadalupe. So the school's principal, Galey Colosimo, anticipates an influx of Latin American culture in his hallways.

The campus is one of 19 U.S. sites where the tilma will be shown, Colosimo said. "It will be at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, at the new (Our Lady of the Angels) cathedral in Los Angeles, and then there's us, little Juan Diego High School in Utah."

Drew D'Ambrosio, 17, drives to Juan Diego every day from Salt Lake City. He's seen other relics at St. Peter's in the Vatican but isn't sure how he'll react when the tilma arrives in Draper.

"It's pretty surprising that it would come here," D'Ambrosio said. Does he expect to be moved by the sight?

"I'm going to wait and see," he replies.

It is just a piece of material, albeit one that draws an estimated 10 million pilgrims per year to its usual resting place in Mexico City. Centuries after Juan Diego's vision, Catholics continue to climb the steps — some on their knees — to the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Why should a relic have such power? To Colosimo, the tilma fragment is a ticket to a compelling, and true, story.

Put yourself in Juan Diego's place and time, he began.