Our Lady of Good Remedies

https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-good-remedies.html

November 6: Our Lady of Good Remedies
 
In 1519 Cortez brought with him a famous little statue to participate in the conquest of Mexico.
The statue was first set up in a temporary chapel in one of the rooms of Montezuma’s palace where the Spanish officers made their devotions.

On the terrible night when the Indians rose against the Spanish conquerors, one of the officers rescued the statue before fighting his way out of the palace.

He did not get far out when he was cut down by Aztec arrows & died at the foot of the Maguey tree.
The tiny statue was either pushed or it fell into the roots of the tree where it was overlooked by the Indians.

Some twenty years later, & Aztec convert prince, John the Eagle, was walking near the tree when he heard a sweet voice calling him; puzzled, he went to the nearby mission of the Franciscan Fathers & told them about it.
They thought it was his imagination.
Some days later John met with an accident, a large pillar of a church under construction fell on him; badly crushed, he was given the Last Sacraments.

During the night when he was thought to be dying, the memory of the sweet voice kept returning to him. He prayed to Our Lady to help him; very early in the morning she gave him a sash to wear & cured him.
A few days later he passed the tree again, & heard the sweet voice; curiously, he looked carefully around the roots of the tree; half buried in the sand, he found the tiny statue of Our Lady.

The Aztec convert thought he should do something about it.
“Come home with me, gracious Lady,” he said, “I will see that you have a good home & are cared for;” he brought the little statue home wrapped in his cape & placed it on a rude altar.

Here Mary reigned as queen in the humble home for 10 or 12 years; John kept the little shrine supplied with flowers, & occasionally with fruit & pretty stones.
Gradually people came to pray at the shrine, their number increasing so, they were under foot day & night.

John took up the local school-master’s suggestion to build a little chapel; he set about building a shrine & enthroned Mary, Our Lady of Good Remedies, there.

The next day to his horror, she was gone.
Lonely & sorrowful, John went to the Maguey tree where he had first found her – & there she was!
He returned the statue to the new shrine & decorated it carefully but she disappeared again; just when John became ill with fever, which is often fatal in this land.

John’s relatives hurried to carry him to Our Lady’s feet in Guadaloupe; as he lay gasping before the shrine of Our Lady of Good Remedies he heard the same sweet voice say: “Why do you come to my house when you put me out of yours?”

John apologized & she continued, “If you didn't want me in your house, why not take me back to the Maguey tree & build me a chapel there?”

“If you cure me, Lady, I most certainly will,” promised the sick man.
He was cured by Our Lady of Good Remedies, & he was as good as his word. He built a chapel into a hermitage & spent the rest of his life there.

Years later, after John’s death, the shrine fell into ruins. In 1574 the Spanish governor happened to see the ruins and was told the story.
He ordered the building of a beautiful church to house the statue.
At one time during an Indian uprising the Indians determined to exile Mary as dangerous to their tribe.

After the danger had passed, Mary was reinstalled in the church.
She was called Our Lady of Good Remedies & also “The Little Lady of the Rain,” because she brought relief to the dry areas there.
Other cities sometimes borrowed her for a procession around their parched fields, begging her to help them – which they say she always does.