Knights' 9-month pilgrimage honours Holy Mother

VANCOUVER—One of five silver roses carried annually by the Knights of Columbus across North America to Monterrey, Mexico, passed through B.C. in July. The flowers are on a 9-month pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the culture of life.

The practice began in 1960 with one real rose. A group of Columbian Squires, the youth organization of the Knights of Columbus, initiated a pro-life relay carrying the flower from London, Ont., to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.

When the relay turned into an annual celebration, the squires commissioned a jeweller to create a longer-lasting blossom. Now, 53 years later, the relay involves five silver roses travelling simultaneously across the continent.

Our province hosted a rose for exactly three weeks. Alex Mitro, State Silver Rose Chairman for B.C. and the Yukon, said the flower spent most of its time in small towns in this province's interior, going as far north as Fort Saint John.

"It's a way of having more people participate," Mitro explained. Not many people will take a bus to Mexico, he said, but they might join the relay.

The roses, which have taken separate routes since March 1, travel by air or land in sturdy locked boxes. Local Knights, dressed in full regalia, ceremoniously pass each rose from one town to the next.

"Every time a rose stops, there's a prayer service," Mitro said. Specific readings, prayers, and blessings accompany each rose and are often recited at the end of Mass, with the valuable flower on display.

The community might also celebrate the occasion with additional activities, such as a local relay run.

Last year's Silver Rose Relay had a record 773 prayer services and 128,742 participants continent-wide. Mitro does not have numbers for this year yet, but guessed there was an average of 60-70 people at B.C. stops.

Four roses will meet in Laredo, Tex., where they will cross into Mexico and enter Monterrey for Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The fifth rose will land in New Haven, the birthplace of the Knights of Columbus, on the same date.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson has described the relay as "a perfect program" for the Knights.

"Through it we honour not only Our Lady of Guadalupe and express the unity of the order, but we also reaffirm the order's dedication to the sanctity of human life."

Chuck Bishop, a knight who participated in the relay as it passed through Kamloops on July 14, saw unity as key to the event. He commented that the rose "represents a particular devotion to Our Blessed Lady, and has been around for years. I think what's significant is that so many people are involved in the same devotion across North America."

The rose became a symbol for Our Lady in 1531, when the Blessed Virgin appeared to Juan Diego (now a saint). Following her instructions, he collected roses in his cloak and took them to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga.

When Diego unfolded the cloth to show the bishop, the blossoms fell out and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on the fabric. The cloth is on display in a basilica near Mexico City.