They only canonized this guy two years ago... 'bout damn time!!!

Today is the Feast of St Juan Diego -- you know, the Guadelupe guy! The basic story goes like this, courtesy of "Women for Faith and Family":

"On December 9, 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac."

That's not all that was impressed.

The roses in question were of a particular variety, that grew only in the bishop's native region of Castile, in Spain. His Lordship recognized them on the spot, and knew that Juan couldn't have picked them locally.

Now, anybody can quote from a website. But where else do you learn fun facts like THAT one???

Uh-huh. Thought so.