Silver Rose Program

Chairman Larry Mader Life Programs

Since 1960, the Silver Rose Program, originally called Operation Rose, has gathered Knights and Columbian Squires from Mexico, the United States and Canada under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas. In the mid-1990s, it was adopted as a Supreme Council initiative, which grew to encompass multiple pilgrimage routes and reaffirm the Order’s commitment to the sanctity of human life.

Before arriving in Rome in December, the silver rose had undertaken a remarkable 9,000-mile pilgrimage. Starting in British Columbia April 27, 2014, Knights and Squires transported the rose south through the United States to El Paso, Texas, crossing the Mexican border into Ciudad Juárez Nov. 2. For the first time, a silver rose was brought not to the Old Basilica of Guadalupe in Monterrey, but to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, near the site of the apparitions to St. Juan Diego in December 1531.

On Nov. 30, the day after the rose’s arrival, pilgrims gathered to welcome the silver rose into the basilica. In a unique procession before Mass, the silver rose was carried along the same route that St. Juan Diego walked from his home in Tulpetlac to Tepeyac Hill. The rose then entered the basilica and was placed at the feet of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

See Documents for a copy of the Silver Rose Service