Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe [Santuario de Guadalupe]

The Shrine's story begins on July 4, 1986, when a missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe brought from Mexico was accepted for permanent display on the grounds of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, on land owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1987, Joaquín Martínez of a local group of Chicago-area Catholics visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and returned with a pilgrim statue, which he and fellow parishioners carried to area parishes and family homes to foster devotion. By the mid-1990s, the movement had grown enough that, in 1995, construction began on an outdoor open-air shrine modeled on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City, where the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531. In 1997, Msgr. Esteban Martinez, representing the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, traveled to Des Plaines to bless the grounds. During that ceremony a portion of earth from Cerro del Tepeyac in Mexico City was poured onto the new hill — earning the site the nickname "New Tepeyac of America" — and the Basilica formally authorized the Des Plaines grounds as a place where devotees unable to make the pilgrimage to Mexico could fulfill their "mandas" (sacred promises) and obtain the associated indulgences. On September 4, 2001, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City, and Msgr. Luis Guerrero-Rosado, then rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, presented a replica image and designated the Des Plaines sanctuary as an official place of pilgrimage for devotees who could not travel to Mexico City. Formal canonical recognition followed more than a decade later. On January 1, 2013, Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., then Archbishop of Chicago, decreed the land around the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to be a Shrine of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The decade since has seen major physical development. On April 21, 2018, Bishop John Manz celebrated the inaugural Mass of St. Joseph Chapel — a chapel seating 1,100 worshippers created from the former Maryville Academy gymnasium, designed to recall St. Joseph's carpentry shop. On December 4, 2021, a new arched entrance to the Shrine was dedicated. In the same decade the Shrine also developed an indoor multipurpose center, classroom space, and pastoral offices. On May 23, 2023, a troubled arsonist (later identified as Virginia Roque-Fermin of Arlington Heights, charged with felony arson) set fire to and heavily damaged the outdoor Chapel of the Resurrection. The chapel was rebuilt over the following months and was re-blessed by Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey Grob at the inaugural Mass of the annual celebration on December 11, 2023, with damage reported at roughly $80,000 and about $25,000 raised at the time of the 10th anniversary. On June 10, 2023, just weeks after the fire, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City came together to renew the Shrine's authorization as a place where Roman Catholic devotees could fulfill their pilgrim promises; they also exchanged a new, authentic mural of the Virgin made from materials of the Tepeyac region. In subsequent years the Shrine expanded its infrastructure with a major Pastoral Center and, in 2026, opened a new on-campus retreat center comprising two buildings — one named for the late Auxiliary Bishop John Manz and one for the late Cardinal Francis George — that together can house 40 overnight guests for parish, religious-community, and adult retreat groups.