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This is the fifth part in a series about little-known Virgin Mary images in Mexico, and each part stands alone. It would be an understatement to declare that religion is a vital part of the lives of most Mexicans. The modern country of Mexico is overwhelmingly Catholic, but some of its beliefs and rituals have foundations in its timeless indigenous past. As in other predominantly Catholic countries, the Virgin Mary, the earthly mother Jesus, plays an important role in the religious lives of Mexicans. Many different apparitions or aspects of the Virgin Mary in Mexico and many shrines devoted to her are known to many people outside the country. In fact, one of the largest religious pilgrimage sites in the entire world can be found in the heart of Mexico itself, in Mexico City, on a hill called Tepeyac. While many millions of visitors from dozens of countries make the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe every year, there are many smaller shrines and Marian devotions not well-known outside of Mexico or even outside their respective regions within Mexico. Here are three.
- La Virgen de la Candelaria de Tecomán
The city of Tecomán, Colima is called “The Lime Capital World” due to the overabundance of citrus produced in orchards around the city. As the city center is located just 7 miles from the Pacific Ocean, in olden days the city’s streets were made of pure beach sand. It was on these sandy roads that a woman name Seferina traveled with her sick daughter whom she wrapped in a shawl. The year was circa 1930. She walked from the current Colonia San Antonio, which at that time were shacks and rough hills, to the city center where there was a doctor. With the little that the woman earned, she barely covered the medical expenses of the girl that every day her condition worsened. Then the day came when the doctor evicted her. He told the woman firmly, “I honestly don’t think the girl will live more than a month, señora.” Then the doctor muttered under his breath, “I hope she understands the situation and gets used to the idea.” Seferina had walked so far from her home on those sandy roads, so finding herself in the center of Tecomán, she stayed praying to the Virgin of La Candelaria in the church with her sick daughter. Seferina even slept outside the church, entering the holy place when it opened in the morning. The doctor watched what that mother was doing from his office which was located on the second floor of a neighboring building, and on one occasion, the doctor crossed the street to tell the lady: “Listen señora, praying to a plaster doll won’t help you cure your daughter. I already told you what the outcome will be, so you shouldn’t waste time with these things anymore.” Seferina didn’t say anything to the doctor, walked away quickly from him and got lost in the streets. In those days, every day at 4 in the afternoon they took the Virgin out of the church and people walked behind it in a small, half-hour neighborhood procession. Seferina returned to the church in the afternoon and did one last procession before going home, leaving her daughter’s health in the hands of Our Lady. Some ten years later, on February 2nd, the feast day of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the doctor looked from his office window and saw Seferina with her already grown daughter, totally healthy. They were part of the Virgin’s procession, walking solemnly and praying a rosary. So, the doctor retreated to his office nervous and scared and never spoke of the subject again. The following year, this doubting physician was seen carrying the virgin’s litter. Despite everyone knowing the doctor’s beliefs, and despite knowing that this doctor was also involved in the Cristero war killing Christians, no one asked him anything or made any comments about it. And with time, they also began to see him every Sunday at mass, always sitting very far back in the pews. Some say that he still renounced his faith and was doing this all for show while others affirm that he was ashamed that the Virgin looked him straight in the eye and he could not deny her power. The Virgin of Tecomán, Colima, has many other miracles associated with her, but this is the most famous one and the one told by many to this day.
- The German Virgin of Schoenstatt and the Lightning Tree
Many years ago, in the state of Querétaro just outside the city of Querétaro to the southwest, an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared that later morphed into something else. Los Olveras was a small ranch that had many laborers to help with the farm work. In an area of the ranch known as Los Copales, there were several men plowing a field on one spring day. This field is now part of a suburb of Querétaro called El Pueblito which is the site of a famous pyramid talked about in Mexico Unexplained episode 57: https://mexicounexplained.com/el-pueblito-last-pyramid-mexico/ . On 
that fateful day, a violent thunderstorm formed very rapidly and a huge lightning bolt came down out of the sky near the men plowing the field. It struck a very large and very old mesquite tree. The thunder was so loud and the ray of light so bright that many curious people came from other parts of the ranch to see what happened. To their amazement, a perfect image of the Virgin had appeared in the split trunk of the mesquite tree. In this perfect image, the Virgin was accompanied by the Baby Jesus whom she was holding extremely close to her. For many years people made pilgrimages from other parts of the state of Querétaro and even neighboring states to visit this miraculous image of the Virgin and Child. Over the course of the years, though, weather and time itself wore away at the image and the tree slowly fell apart. People still visited the site, though, knowing of this miracle. By the mid-20th Century, urban sprawl swallowed up the small ranchos in the area, but the memory of the miracle persisted. In 1977 a European faction of the Sisters of Mary established themselves in Querétaro, and heard stories of the miracle in the mesquite tree in El Pueblito. From the descriptions of old timers who had seen the image and from old illustrations, the sisters believed that the apparition that came through the lightning bolt was that of the Virgin of Schoenstatt, an image venerated in the small German town by the same name located on the Rhine River in the western part of Germany. This virgin is called “The Thrice Admirable Mother” because she is said to be the Mother of God, the Mother of the Redeemer, and also our Mother. On October 18, 1980, the Sisters of Mary dedicated a shrine to the Virgin of Schoenstatt on the spot of the famous mesquite tree and it is now called The Shrine of Mary, Mother and Queen, Loyal Heart of the Church. This obscure German virgin was new to Mexicans, but pilgrims to this sacred location began praying to her and have reported many miracles and favors granted in the name of the Virgin of Schoenstatt. Because of her powerful influence among believers and her growing following, 3 more shrines have been dedicated to the Virgin of Schoenstatt throughout Mexico, but the one in Querétaro attracts the most visitors by far.
- The Virgin of Cunduacán and the Cross of Mystery
Two towns in Tabasco, Tacotalpa and Cunduacán, commissioned a wood carver in Guatemala to make two images of Mary, one of the Nativity for Tacotalpa, and the other of the Assumption for Cunduacán, who were their respective patron saints. Both images were brought on the backs of two mules from Guatemala and arrived in Tacotalpa on the morning of August 15. The residents came to receive the image of their patron saint, the Virgin of the Nativity, but when trying to unharness the box with the carving inside, the mule did not allow itself to be touched. No matter how many attempts the residents made, it was impossible to take away its precious cargo from the animal. When anyone approached it, the mule kicked them with its hind legs. They tried to force the mule, hitting it and poking it with sticks, but nothing helped. The mule was seen with its teeth in the air as if laughing at those who tried to unload it. The other mule had stretched out peacefully in the 
pasture, while the villagers took the whole day in their failed attempts to unload its companion. The residents agreed to call the mayor, who was an older man, of great wisdom and faith, to find a solution, but since he was very ill, he was carried to the place in a chair. Upon arrival, he examined the case and removed the doubts of the inhabitants, who thought this was something of the devil’s making, and told them that it was a sign that the Virgin of the Nativity wanted to be venerated in Cunduacán and that the Virgin of the Assumption wanted to protect Tacotalpa, which was the reverse of what was originally intended. Therefore, the mule that carried the Virgin of the Assumption was unloaded very easily, and this image was placed on the main altar of the church at Tacotalpa, and the same was done later in Cunduacán with the Virgin of the Nativity. Although switched around, the true believers thought it to be God’s wish, so they accepted the change. The legends around Our Lady of the Nativity of Cuduacán do not end there. On May 3, 1693, due to a terrible drought that devastated the region, the priest and the faithful of Cunduacán agreed to take out the Virgin of the Nativity in procession to ask for it to rain. As the image passed in front of the wooden cross that was in the church’s cemetery, the cross bowed twice, until it touched the ground, in the form of reverence before Our Lady. Due to this miracle that everyone confirmed, the priest decided to unearth the cross and take it under the canopy in the procession, behind the image of the Virgin, until it was placed next to the main altar of the church. Subsequently, the parish priest of the church reported what had happened to the Pope and, after the miracle was authenticated, it was decided that the cross should be taken to Rome. When in Rome, the cross was divided into three parts and from those three parts three new crosses were made. One stayed in Rome, the other was sent to Spain and the third was sent back to the Church of the Nativity in Cunduacán, where it was placed at the feet of the image of Mary. A papal bull in which the miracle of the bowing cross was authenticated was signed in 1720 and in it the Pope granted indulgences to those who either prayed before the Virgin of the Nativity, made a pilgrimage to her church in Cunduacán or prayed her novena. The cross that was sent back to Cunduacán has since disappeared and many believe that it was lost during the religious persecution in Tabasco in the 1930s. There are people actively searching for this relic and legend says it will afford supernatural powers to the one who eventually recovers it.
REFERENCES
Various website sources (in Spanish)