December 12 is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe (read the story here). The December 11, 1931 community annals (day-to-day accounts of events) entry is in anticipation of this feast day, which for the first time will be celebrated at Maple Mount. The entry states:
“Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe inserted in the Martyrology (calendar of feast days and saint memorials) in Convent and Academy; Meditation in Three Points written for the Feast which we shall commemorate to-morrow, for the first time at M.S.J. 400 years ago, Our Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian, and gave him and the world Her Image impressed on the Indian’s blanket, together with miraculous roses which she had Juan to pluck on Dec. 12, from the bleak, barren, mountain side! Our Lady loved America first, before she appeared to Bernadette.”
On the following day, the Academy sodalists (association dedicated to the spread of devotion to the Blessed Mother) put on a program in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Below is an article written about the day that appeared in the January 1932 edition of The Mount, the Academy newspaper.
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Observed by Sodalists
“Who does not rejoice when a Feast of Mary comes?” said Father Faber, devoted lover of Mary, and the same words echo her thousands of sodalists throughout the Land.
On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary’s children gathered round her shrine to pay her tribute under this title. Our Blessed Lady has appeared many times, but on no occasion has she been more condescending than when she deigned to imprint her lovely image on the rough coat of the moor Mexican.
The students of the academic department held a symposium in honor of this feast; the following topics were discussed:
Ave Maria…………………………………… Chorus
Introduction………………………………….Mary Elleen Butler
Apparitions………………………………..…Mary C. Hardesty
The Miraculous Picture………………….…M.A. Tinker
The Wonders of the Picture………………Beatrice Russell
Shrines…………………………………..….Nora Spalding
Church’s Approval of this Devotion………Janet Clements
Our Lady of Guadalupe……………………Alberta Dienes
Violin Solo…………………………………..Mary Alice Tinker
Visit to the Shrine……………………….…Mary E. Jarboe
The Golden Hail Mary……………………..Josephine Wethington
Piano Solo………………………………….Rose Nell Dowdy
Mother Mary, at They Altar………………Chorus
One of the chief contributing features toward the success of the evening was the stage setting; a statue of our Lady arched in roses was the central figure; numerous vigil lights burned before the shrine, and the stage lighting lent a heavenly effect to the whole.
In 1949 Academy students create a living 15 decade rosary on the Mount Saint Joseph campus.