MEXICO: Prostrations

THINGS ARE TO ME AS TO ME THEY APPEAR;

TO YOU THEY ARE AS TO YOU THEY APPEAR.

Greek Axiom

One Juan Diego, shirtless Mexican Indian, was trudging through Guadalupe, few miles from Mexico City. Suddenly he received the impression that a fair young virgin, the Mother of God, stood beforehim. Falling on his face he prayed. Rising up he succeeded in convincing others of the verity of his impression. Since then (1851) thousands, tens of thousands and finally as many as two hundred thousand worshipers at a time have come to pray at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

They came, last week, on the anniversary of Juan Diego’s impression. Like him, they were mostly shirtless, but some few were devout Roman Catholics of wealth and consequence. Due to the anticlerical laws (TIME, Feb. 22) no Roman Catholic priest officiated at the shrine. Roman Catholic laymen, armed with batons, hurried the crowds past the Blessed Virgin’s image. Peons who sought to crawl to and from the shrine on all fours were made to get up and walk lest they obstruct the way.