Today is the feast of La Virgen de Guadalupe , Our Lady of Guadalupe . Under that title Mary is a Secondary Patroness of the Philippines. Ten years after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portugues explorer, landed in the Philippines - 1521 - Our Blessed Mother appeared to San Juan Diego on the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. (I think it is now part of the city). At the time the Church in the Philippines was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Mexico, which was set up in 1530. The Diocese of Manila, the first in the Philippines, wasn't erected until 1579, as a suffragan of the by now Archdiocese of Mexico. So there are long, historical links between the Church in the Philippines and the Church in Mexico. The official website of the shrine, in Spanish, is here . Below is an article we published in the May-June 2013 issue of Misyon , the Columban online magazine I edit here in the Philippines. The author lives and works in Metro Manila. A ...