Thousands expected for first public event at Blessed Stanley Rother shrine

Preparations are being made for the first public event at the site of a new religious shrine in Oklahoma City.

The much-anticipated grand opening of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine is set for February 2023, but thousands of the faithful are expected to converge on the shrine complex on Sunday for the dedication of Oklahoma's version of Tepeyac Hill, a famous sacred site in Mexico City. The dedication of the hill will include the unveiling of statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego which have been installed atop the 50-foot-tall hill.

The Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, will be principal celebrant at an outdoor Mass, notable as the first public Mass at the shrine site. The Mass at 1 p.m. will include the dedication of the hill and statues. The faithful will have an opportunity to go up to the top of the hill to view the statues.

More: Failing Latin and being on a death list: Here are things to know about Blessed Stanley Rother

While the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine is expected to draw pilgrims and guests from all over the world, Hispanic Catholics, in particular, are expected to flock to the replica of Tepeyac Hill because they likely will embrace this important aspect of the shrine site.

Tepeyac Hill is the site in Mexico where, according to tradition, the Aztec peasant Juan Diego (declared a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002) is said to have seen an apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a brown-skinned and pregnant version of the Virgin Mary, on Dec. 12, 1531. According to accounts, the apparition told Diego to tell Roman Catholic Church leaders to build a cathedral for her in the mountains. When a clergyman demanded proof of the encounter, the apparition told Diego to gather roses on the side of a mountain — in the middle of December. When Diego appeared at the church with the miraculous roses, the shocked bishop believed him and a church was built just as Our Lady requested. An imprint of the apparition appeared on Diego's tilma, or cape, in which he'd carried the roses.

The faithful pay homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas, by leaving roses and other flowers on the original Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City, where they go to pray, particularly on and around her feast day of Dec. 12. Along those lines, a play re-enacting the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego will be performed on Sunday, along with a concert. Food trucks will also be on hand.

The Rev. Don Wolf, pastor of the shrine church, said individuals and families who will be members of the predominantly Hispanic shrine parish (the combined predominantly Hispanic Sacred Heart and Holy Angels congregations) are expected to attend the dedication along with members of other churches who regularly host activities associated with the Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day. Wolf said this group will make up an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 of the expected crowd. He said many more people will likely attend the activities because they won't want to miss a chance to get an up close view of the shrine site. The shrine buildings will not be accessible to the public until the grand opening in February.

Meanwhile, Leif Arvidson, the shrine's executive director, said the painted bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands at more than 12 feet tall, and the statue of St. Juan Diego kneeling before her measures about 8 feet tall. He said Tepeyac Hill and the two statues help convey an important part of Church history because Our Lady told Diego of her wish to have a church built at the site.

"They're just in remembrance of the beautiful story of when Our Lady appeared to Diego and asked for the Church to be built," Arvidson said of the statues. "This was really kind of a great impetus behind the evangelization of the Americas."

The shrine official said the statues were both created by a sculptor in Mexico City. He said once they were completed, they were taken to the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City where a priest involved in ministry there blessed each statue before they were sent to Oklahoma City.

"So, it's neat to have a connection to the place where the apparition of Our Lady actually occurred," he said.

More: How close is Stanley Rother to being recognized as a Catholic saint?

Wolf said there aren't that many replicas of the hill in America. Tepeyac Hill in Oklahoma City is among just a few others modeled after the sacred site. Most notably, there are Tepeyac Hill replicas at the outdoor Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Illinois, and the Oblate Grotto in San Antonio.

Activities continue on Monday

The faithful will return to the shrine complex to pay homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe with several activities traditionally held to celebrate her feast day on Dec. 12. Many churches across the state, particularly those with large numbers of Hispanic parishioners, begin the celebration with early morning events called mananitas — singing songs to the Virgin Mary to wake her up. Mananitas will be held at Tepeyac Hill at 5 a.m. Dec. 12, and the Rosary will be prayed at 6 p.m. Traditional dancing will be held after these activities and sweet breads and hot chocolate will be served.

Mass and Tepeyac Hill dedication

When: Shrine site will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mass and Tepeyac Hill and statues dedication, 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11; and Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration, 5 a.m. Monday, Dec. 12.

Where: Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, 700 SE 89; three access points to the shrine — Interstate 35 Service Road, SE 89 and Shields Boulevard. Overflow parking will also be available at Crossroads Church and other nearby sites.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Information: http://rothershrine.org/tepeyac-hill; http://rothershrine.org.

Blessed Stanley Rother

The Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine is named for an Oklahoma priest on the path to Roman Catholic sainthood. Rother was an Okarche farmer before he was ordained into the priesthood and he served in several Catholic churches in Oklahoma before traveling to Guatemala to serve as a missionary. Guatemala was in the midst of a civil war. In 1981, Rother was killed in the rectory of his Guatemalan church by unknown assailants. He was 46. In 2016, Pope Francis declared him a martyr for the faith — the first recognized Catholic martyr from the United States. He was beatified in 2017 in a ceremony in Oklahoma City.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine is set for Tepeyac Hill dedication Sunday