Detroit — The story of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance to a Mexican peasant in 1531 has grown into one of the most popular Marian devotions in the world — especially for Hispanic Catholics — and the iconic tilma bearing her miraculous image has become one of the most familiar symbols of Catholic life.

After the Virgin’s initial appearance to Juan Diego on a small hill outside Mexico City, she asked that a church be erected on the site in her honor. Juan Diego, heeding her request, tried with much difficulty to get an appointment to see the city’s bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, who requested a miraculous sign to prove the apparition’s identity, reluctant to take Juan Diego seriously. After several attempts to persuade the bishop, including the miraculous healing of Juan Diego’s uncle, Our Lady gave Juan Diego Castilian roses — not native to Mexico, especially in December — and instructed him to carry them to the bishop in his tilma, the peasant’s cloak he was wearing.

Upon arriving to see the bishop, Juan Diego opened his tilma to release the roses, and to both his surprise and the bishop’s, the miraculously imprinted image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on it.

Over the years, various studies of the tilma — which still hangs above the main altar in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City almost 500 years later — have proclaimed its miraculous nature. Besides its unmistakable preservation, it is known for its stunning detail, including a three-dimensional reflection of a human figure in the eyes of the Virgin believed by some to be a reflection of the bishop at the moment of the miracle. Because of this, some common piety believes the tilma reflects what could be a realistic “photograph” of Our Lady, standing near Juan Diego, at the moment the tilma was opened.

On the rest of the tilma are various icons and imagery with layers of meaning to the indigenous people of Mexico — such as her belt, a cultural sign of pregnancy. Some of the symbols are included in a booklet, “El Milagro de las Rosas” (written in Spanish), by Pedro Noguez Rivera.

While most replicas of the tilma — including the one worn by Rivera during his presentations — degrade after a decade or two, the original has retained its structural integrity for nearly half a millennium. In 1921, a bomb detonated near the altar of the basilica did not harm the icon, despite it having minimal protection, and the icon is even said to have repaired itself after an ammonia spill damaged it in 1791.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe the patroness of the Americas, and her shrine in Mexico City is the most visited pilgrimage destination in the world, with millions of pilgrims each year. Her feast day is Dec. 12.