From the Wilmington Star-News of December 12, 2008

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Celebrating a saint with a brass band, devotion

By Amanda Greene
Staff Writer

Published: Friday, December 12, 2008 at 11:40 a.m.

"Santa, santa, santa," were the words about 700 people sang early Friday morning, hailing their saint, the empress of Mexico - Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe is Dec. 12, but the festivities of devotion to the patron saint of many Mexicans began late Thursday night and stretched into the early morning hours Friday at St. Mary Catholic Church.

Legend says that in 1531, an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor man named Juan Diego in Mexico. She was dressed as an Aztec princess with the light of the sun surrounding her. She told him to build a church and in exchange, she would offer her love, compassion and help for all the people of Mexico. "It's a story of compassion and the triumph over hate and violence," said Father Bob Kus, priest at St. Mary, speaking his message Friday morning in Spanish to a standing-room-only crowd. "It teaches that the Catholic church is for everyone; not just those who are high in society."

Entire families came for the celebration, even the smallest babies, asleep and draped over their parents' shoulders during the midnight Mass. The service was joyous, full of clapping, an eight-piece brass ensemble and cheering calls of "Quien vive? Vive Maria!" (Who lives? Mary lives.) Despite hard economic times, each family brought bundles of red and white roses, white daisies and lilies to place in front of the altar. A LED sparkling statue of Mary stood on one table in front of the larger stone statue of Mary wrapped in the Mexican flag and flanked by angels.

"She's Mary. Many people ask her a lot for help in hard times," said Manuela Silva, of the state of Durango in Mexico. "When someone comes here (to the United States) they ask her to watch over them on the way here. I prayed to her."