New garden haven in Windsor to greet Virgin of Guadalupe trekkers

Hundreds of marchers, observing the Catholic holiday devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe, were scheduled to finish their hourslong trek early this morning from Santa Rosa to Windsor, where a haven awaits them.

The new prayer garden outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, near the corner of Old Redwood Highway and Alden Lane in Windsor, was officially dedicated - after two years of planning, fundraising and construction - with a blessing ceremony Sunday afternoon by Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa.

Vasa spoke briefly inside the church to an overflow crowd of several hundred people, praising the garden, which features a 4-foot-tall bronze statue of the Virgin Mary, as a “symbol of faith and devotion.”

Dressed in black and red, the bishop then moved outside with the Windsor parish priest, the Rev. Michaelraj Philominsamy, for the blessing ceremony, including the sprinkling of holy water and the burning of incense.

“We consider this our sanctuary,” said parishioner Nestor Rodriguez, 63, of Windsor. “Anytime we need to pray, we’ll be here.”

Bette Ann Fleischacker, project manager for the prayer garden, emphasized the campaign for the new installation won support not only from parish members, but also the surrounding neighborhood and the community of Windsor.

“The prayer garden is open for use by all,” she said.

Jose Vasquez, 17, who grew up in the parish and returned to Windsor from his current home in Fulton for Sunday’s ceremony, said he saw the garden as a symbol of unity.

“I feel like it brings the community together,” he said. “It gives people a place to gather.”

Sunday’s inauguration of the prayer garden was deliberately timed to coincide with the Virgin of Guadalupe Day celebrated Dec. 12 in Mexico. Pilgrimages are made in her name every December all over Mexico and in parts of the United States.

For close to 20 years, the local faithful have held a similar march carrying a statue of the Virgin from Santa Rosa to Windsor, ending at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. As many as 1,000 have participated.

Sunday, they planned to start from St. Rose Church in Santa Rosa around midnight and walk the nearly nine miles on Mendocino Avenue and Old Redwood Highway to Windsor.

“We wanted to get (the garden) done before the big annual walk from Santa Rosa to our church,” Fleischacker said of the project in Windsor.

More than $45,000 was raised, all in small donations, she said, to complete the project, which includes benches and olive trees.

“It’s a quiet place where you can pray and meditate. Goodness knows, at this time people are really looking for something like that,” she said.

Virgin of Guadalupe Day commemorates what Roman Catholic believers say was the appearance of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1531 to the peasant Juan Diego outside Mexico City.

The icon of the Virgin displayed at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is one of that country’s most revered images and also the object of huge gatherings on Dec. 12.

According to the story, the Virgin asked Diego to speak to the bishop and request a church be built in her name on Tepeyac Hill, on the outskirts of Mexico City, displacing a former Aztec temple.

As a miraculous sign, roses that Diego gathered in his peasant cloak were said to have been replaced by the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe imprinted on the fabric.

The purported cloak worn by Diego, who was made a saint by Pope John Paul II, is on display at the Basilica outside Mexico City.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach staff writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.