Mass Schedule
Daily Feast
| 11:30 a.m. |
| 5:30 p.m. |
Saturday/Sabado
| 6:30 a.m. |
| 9:30 a.m. |
| 11:30 a.m. |
| 5:30 p.m. |
Sunday/Domingo
| 6:00 a.m. | (Spanish) |
| 7:30 a.m. | (Bilingual) |
| 9:00 a.m. | (English) |
| 11:00 a.m. | (Bilingual) |
| 1:00 p.m. | (Spanish) |
| 3:30 p.m. | (English) |
| 5:30 p.m. | (Spanish) |
Location
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Bishop Daniel E. Flores
Catholic Diocese
of Brownsville
of Brownsville
History of Virgen de San Juan
For centuries Christians have made pilgrimages with a spiritual purpose to
holy places. Here in the Rio Grande Valley, hundreds are drawn to the
shrine dedicated to Our Lady of San Juan Del Valle, and the number of
pilgrims continues growing. Averaging more than one million visitors a
year (20,000 a weekend), it is one of the most visited shrines in the
United States.
The history of this Marian shrine begins in 1920, when the Reverend Alfonso
Jalbert, O.M.I., built a small wooden chapel in San Juan, Texas as a mission
church of St. Margaret Mary Church in Pharr, Texas.
The origins of the devotion to Our Lady of San Juan are found in San Juan de
los Lagos, Mexico, a town founded near Guadalajara after the Spanish
conquest of Mexico. Spanish missionaries placed a small image of the
Immaculate Conception in the church of San Juan de los Lagos.
In 1623, an acrobat traveling with his wife and children stopped in San Juan
de los Lagos to give a performance. While practicing their act, the youngest
daughter lost her balance and was killed. As her grieving parents prepared
her burial, an Indian woman who was the caretaker of the church, brought the
image of the Virgin Mary to them and begged the parents to place the image
over their daughter's body and prayed for the Virgin's intercession. After
placing the Virgin's image over the body of the child (according to the
story related to the Bishop years later and following a meticulous
investigation of the event) the child was brought back to life. As word
spread of the miracle, the devotion to Our Lady, under the title of "La
Virgen de San Juan", started to grow throughout Jalisco. Today, she is
recognized by many people throughout Mexico as well as the United States.
In 1949, Rev. Jose Maria Azpiazu, O.M.I., became pastor of the
parish of St. John the Baptist in San Juan, Texas. He was convinced that
fostering a devotion to Our Lady of San Juan would benefit his people and
help draw the community together. After receiving permission from the bishop
to foster the devotion to Our Lady of San Juan, he commissioned an artist in
Guadalajara, Mexico to make a reproduction of the statue venerated at San
Juan de Los Lagos.
Over the years several myths have emerged concerning Father Azpiazu's trip
to San Juan de los Lagos and Guadalajara, Mexico. The story as told by
Benito Martinez, who drove with Father Azpiazu, relays that they drove to
Guadalajara to order the replica of the statue after their visit to San Juan
de Los Lagos. While driving to San Juan de Los Lagos and singing a new hymn
that Fr. Azpiazu taught them, the car slipped off the road.
Martinez recalls that after getting back on the road they ran out of gas and
they found a small ranch where a couple gave them enough gas to get to the
next town. The couple also gave them a donation for the abbot of the shrine
in San Juan de los Lagos. "We drove back looking for that ranch so that we
could thank the family, but could not find the ranch. There was nothing
there. Father Azpiazu said that Our Lady put the family there to help us,
and that she wanted us to do something special for her."
Martinez said the experience deepened Father Azpiazu's devotion to the
Mother of God for her intercession and protection, and he returned more
determined to construct a sanctuary in honor of Our Lady of San Juan in
Texas. The statue of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle was first placed in the
San Juan chapel.
Bishop Mariano S. Garriaga approved the construction of a new church and the
shrine was built five years later in 1954, and dedicated to the Virgen de
San Juan. At the time San Juan was a part of the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
Over the next ten years other facilities were built around the shrine — a
convent for Sisters and a school in 1955, a rectory and a pilgrim house in
1958, a retreat house in 1961, a cafeteria in 1963, and a nursing home in
1964.
Father Azpiazu retired in 1970 after 21 years of expanding the shrine
complex and developing it into an important pilgrimage site.
Sixteen years after its construction, a tragic event on October 23,
1970 destroyed the entire shrine. While 50 priests were concelebrating Mass
with another 50 people in attendance, and 100 school children in an adjacent
cafeteria, the pilot of a small low-flying airplane crashed into the roof of
the shrine and exploded into flames. While the overall loss was estimated at
$1.5 million, many claim it was a miracle that no one was hurt or died in
the tragedy. The pilot of the plane, Francis B. Alexander, was the only
fatality. Our Lady of San Juan was protecting her children at that moment.
Also, Father Patricio Dominguez, O.M.I., a missionary priest, along with the
help of a sacristan, rescued the Blessed Sacrament and statue of Our Lady of
San Juan del Valle and carried them to safety before the altar was engulfed
in flames.
The losses included interior walls of Mexican marble; marble altars; a copy
of El Greco's masterpiece of the Trinity; hand-carved statues; 14
hand-carved Stations of the Cross imported from Germany; beautiful stained
glass windows; a marble railing and baptismal font, all imported from Spain;
a life-sized crucifix that was carved in wood by Julio Beobide, the same
artist who created the crucifix for the monument of the Valley of the Fallen
in Spain; and giant murals which represented 17 years of work by Spanish
artist Bartolome Mongrell.
After the shrine was destroyed, the shrine's dining room temporarily
housed the statue of Our Lady of San Juan.
Bishop John J. Fitzpatrick separated the administration of the shrine from
the parish in November 1972. He made plans to build a parish church on the
site of the destroyed shrine and build a bigger church to serve as the
shrine on the grounds north of the former shrine. The groundbreaking for the
new shrine took place on November 27, 1976.
The new shrine, which seats 3,500 people, was dedicated on April 19, 1980.
Cardinal Medeiros joined Bishop Fitzpatrick at the dedication along with an
estimated 50,000 people. The beautifully landscaped grounds feature the 14
Stations of the Cross, and a 45-foot mosaic on the exterior of the shrine
was completed in 1995. The mosaic features Jesus presenting his Mother to
the Valley, and can be seen from Expressway 83.
During Bishop Raymundo J. Peña's episcopacy in the Diocese of
Brownsville, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated Our Lady
of San Juan del Valle a national shrine on March 24, 1998, and the following
year on June 12, 1999 Pope John Paul II designated it as a minor basilica.
The designation as a basilica at the time made it one of 43 minor basilicas
in the United States, and one of only three in Texas.
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