Suburban Catholics celebrate statue’s visit to Hanover Park church

Area Catholics traveled to Hanover Park on Tuesday to show their devotion and pray for miracles during a visit by the Statue of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos at St. Ansgar Roman Catholic Church in Hanover Park.

The statue, adorned in a gold crown and a blue robe trimmed with gold, stands about 20 inches tall and is encased in glass and metal. The visit, which continues through Wednesday, is part of the pilgrim statue's tour of 12 parishes in five dioceses over five weeks.

The Blessed Mother’s Basilica in San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico, draws countless pilgrims annually, who come to reaffirm their faith and seek her intercession. Revered by millions of Catholics across Mexico and Latin America, it is the second most visited religious site in Mexico after the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“A lot of people come here to ask her to pray for miracles,” said Esperanza Carreno, religious education coordinator at St. Ansgar.

Last year marked the 400th anniversary of the miraculous event that sparked the enduring devotion.

According to tradition, a family of circus performers traveling to Guadalajara in 1623 stopped in San Juan de los Lagos. During a performance, their young daughter tragically fell to her death from a trapeze, and an Indigenous woman, moved by the family's grief, asked an image of “La Cihualpilli” (“The Great Lady”) be brought to the girl. Miraculously, when the image was placed on her chest, the girl was restored to life.

It has become an annual tradition to host a replica of the image of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos in northern Illinois and Indiana diocese.