In 2026, Filipinos will welcome a visitor whose presence has shaped centuries of faith, culture, and national devotion: the Pilgrim Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Set to arrive later this June, the pilgrimage marks a major spiritual moment for the Church in the Philippines as it joins a global journey leading to the 500th anniversary of the Marian apparitions at Tepeyac in 1531.
The pilgrimage forms part of the Novena Intercontinental Guadalupana (2025–2031), a worldwide devotional initiative uniting churches across continents in prayer and preparation for the jubilee year. The image’s international journey recently brought it to the Archdiocese of Chicago, beginning August 27, 2025—the first stop in the United States—where prayer services and cultural events were held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines and in key parishes across the archdiocese.
The global pilgrimage was envisioned by Martín Achirica Ramos, who created a unique veneration experience featuring two digital reproductions of the original tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an image of St. Juan Diego, and a hyper-realistic, life-size sculpture of the Virgin, crafted by renowned Mexican artist Jorge Ismael Rodríguez. All elements were blessed by the Rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Msgr. Efraín Hernández Díaz. The experience is accompanied by original music and narrated reflections recounting the apparitions—engaging sight, sound, and prayer to foster unity, peace, and renewal of faith.
In June 2025, Achirica Ramos personally wrote to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., expressing the hope that the pilgrim image might visit the Philippines—a nation long under the Virgin’s maternal care. That hope has since taken concrete shape.
Overseeing the Philippine leg of the pilgrimage is the Guadalupe Pilgrimage Committee, chaired by Mr. Ernest Escaler, a prominent Filipino businessman, with Most Rev. Jose Colin M. Bagaforo, D.D., Bishop of Kidapawan, serving as spiritual director. The pilgrimage is a CBCP-supported and guided initiative, formally incorporated into the Church’s national pastoral program through the office of Msgr. Bernardo Pantin, CBCP Secretary-General. The committee is working closely with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through the Association of Catholic Shrines and Pilgrimages (ACSP). As a Church-led religious undertaking, the visit will be carried out in collaboration with bishops nationwide, religious communities, and lay organizations, all contributing their time and expertise in service of this historic pilgrimage.
The pilgrim image’s June 13th arrival in Manila will formally launch the journey to more than 40 cathedrals and shrines nationwide, including a visit to the 132nd CBCP Plenary in Ozamiz City.
These include long-established centers of Guadalupan devotion in Pagsanjan, Cebu, Makati, Zambales, and Bohol, before the image reaches its final destination: a permanent home at the iconic Manila Cathedral.
For Filipinos, the visit carries deep historical and spiritual meaning. Introduced to the Philippines in the late 16th century, devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe quickly took root. In 1935, Pope Pius XI declared her Celestial Patroness of the Philippine Islands, and in 2001, her feast on December 12 was established as an Obligatory Memorial. Her image has even accompanied the nation through moments of trial and hope, including the peaceful struggle of the People Power Revolution.
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