The national shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States is not in the Southwest. It is at 501 Ridge Avenue in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in a Gothic parish church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, which a committee of the American bishops chose for the title in 1974.
Two reasons were given for the choice. Eastern Pennsylvania lies a long way from Mexico City, and a shrine here would reach pilgrims who would never make the journey to Tepeyac. Allentown was also not a Spanish-speaking city, and putting the national shrine in one said that devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe belongs to the whole Church, not to Latino Catholics alone.
The church that received the title had carried its own Marian dedication since 1857. Juan Diego saw the Virgin on the hill of Tepeyac on 9 December 1531 — the day the Church then kept as the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Over a side altar in Allentown hangs one of only three photographs ever made of the original tilma in Mexico City. Sister Mary Martha Zammatore, quoted in the diocesan paper, calls it the best picture of the three.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
Immaculate Conception parish was founded in 1857 by John Neumann, then Bishop of Philadelphia and later canonized. The present church, Gothic in style, dates from 1900 and replaced the parish's first building.
The devotion the parish would come to host began far to the south. The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, outside Mexico City, in December 1531, and her image was found on the tilma, the cloak he had used to carry roses to his bishop. Pius XII named Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of the Americas in 1946. John Paul II named her Patroness of the Unborn in 1999 and canonized Juan Diego on 31 July 2002.
The idea of an American shrine came from Mexico. In 1958 the Archbishop of Mexico City proposed a national shrine centre to Bishop Sidney Metzger of El Paso, Texas. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops later made known that it wanted a National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States, and parishes across the country submitted their cases; the pastor of Immaculate Conception, Msgr. Thompson, submitted Allentown's.
An episcopal committee of the conference settled on Allentown in 1974, and the image was set in the church — a life-size replica of the tilma, installed in the sanctuary.
A brick addition in 1998 gave the church a chapel, an elevator and a lobby. Within the diocese's Hispanic ministry the shrine is known by its Spanish name, the Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Madre de las Américas.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Allentown
National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas
The shrine occupies the parish church of Immaculate Conception in Center City Allentown, a Gothic building of 1900. The tilma photograph hangs over a side altar, and a perpetual novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe is prayed through the year. A brick addition of 1998 holds a chapel, a lobby and an elevator. The shrine and the parish are the same building and the same congregation.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe — December 12
December 12 is fixed, and on the liturgical calendar for the United States it carries the rank of feast rather than the optional memorial the general Roman calendar assigns. At the shrine a novena is prayed on the nine days before, December 3 to 11. The feast Mass falls on or near the twelfth and is followed by mariachi music, Mexican food and traditional dances, arranged by the parish's Guadalupe Committee.
The Diocese of Allentown keeps the same feast at a larger scale in another building. At the Santander Arena in Reading, roughly 50 km away, Las Mañanitas is sung before dawn and the Bishop of Allentown celebrates a solemn Mass in the evening, with a fiesta of folklórico dancers, food and live music after it. Thousands attend that celebration; the Ridge Avenue church is a parish church, and its own December 12 is kept on a parish scale.
🛏️ Where to Stay
The Americus Hotel (boutique hotel) — Allentown's historic landmark hotel on Hamilton Street, about 1.4 km from the shrine, rebuilt in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Now operating under Hyatt's Unscripted brand, with 135 rooms and a restaurant on site. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Renaissance Allentown Hotel (hotel) — A 170-room full-service Marriott property on North 7th Street, about 1.5 km from the shrine, attached to the PPL Center arena. The conventional chain option in the downtown core. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
The Historic Benner Mansion (B&B) — A three-room bed and breakfast in a 1914 Italianate mansion on South 15th Street, about 2.9 km from the shrine, and by its own account the first B&B in Allentown. Breakfast included. Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) is the city's own airport, about 4.5 km north of the shrine. Philadelphia International (PHL) lies about 85 km south and Newark Liberty (EWR) about 110 km east, both with much wider route networks.
By Train: Allentown has had no passenger rail service since 1979, when SEPTA's last trains stopped running. Pilgrims travelling by Amtrak change to a Thruway coach at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station; Martz Trailways runs the Lehigh Valley leg.
By Bus: Intercity coaches use the Allentown Transportation Center in Center City, about 1.3 km from the shrine, where LANTA's local buses meet Trans-Bridge Lines, Greyhound, Martz Trailways and Fullington Trailways. Trans-Bridge runs direct services to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
By Car: Ridge Avenue is in Center City, about a kilometre north of Hamilton Street, the downtown spine. The Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension (I-476) passes west of the city limits, running from Plymouth Meeting outside Philadelphia north to I-81 at Clarks Summit, and US-22 crosses the north side of Allentown.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Grzegorz Górny and Janusz Rosikoń. Guadalupe Mysteries: Deciphering the Code — A photographic and forensic investigation of the tilma itself, its pigments, its weave and the scientific examinations it has undergone. The natural companion to a shrine whose centrepiece is a photograph of that cloth.
Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez. Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love — A historical and theological account of the apparition and of the title under which the Allentown shrine is dedicated.
Online Resources:
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Diocesan Treasure — The Diocese of Allentown's own newspaper on the shrine's founding, its December celebration and the parish that houses it.
🔗 Useful Links
Diocese of Allentown — The diocese in which the national shrine sits, with parish directory and diocesan news.
GCatholic: National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe — Directory record for the shrine, with its address and designation history.
Trans-Bridge Lines — Intercity coach operator linking Allentown with New York City and Newark Airport.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Washington (41 km) — America's national Fatima shrine, on 150 acres of New Jersey countryside.
Doylestown (41 km) — American Częstochowa, the Polish-American shrine of the Black Madonna, kept by the Pauline Fathers.
Philadelphia (76 km) — The national shrines of St. John Neumann, who founded the Allentown parish, and of St. Rita of Cascia.
Stirling (82 km) — The Shrine of St. Joseph in the Watchung Mountains, kept by the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity.
Scranton (90 km) — A Passionist shrine on a plateau above the city, home to a novena to St. Ann begun in 1924.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"I have come here to place at the feet of the mestiza Virgin of Tepeyac, Star of the New World, the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America, which incorporates the contributions and pastoral suggestions of that Synod, entrusting to the Mother and Queen of this continent the future of its evangelization."
— Pope St. John Paul II, Homily at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 23 January 1999
