About a decade ago, a Deer Valley Mexican couple commissioned an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the new St. Mary's. And with it, the burgeoning Latino community in "lily white" Park City found a place to call home, Bussen says.

The pastor remembers unpacking the gift to show it to congregants who had attended a Mass in English. The people nodded and called it "beautiful." But when he unveiled the large, gilded icon to more than 100 Latino Catholics, who had come to church for a Spanish-language Mass, "They all fell to their knees and prayed," he says.

The Latino dedication ceremony for the then-new church included a four-mile processional with community members carrying Our Lady of Guadalupe down Park City's posh Main Street. There was singing, and hordes of people swarmed the church. To this day, the icon draws a steady flow of visitors, the abundance of candles and flowers around it serving as proof. Some 2,500 Latinos, most first-generation immigrants from Mexico, now attend Bussen's church.

To understand the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, also referred to as the Virgin of Guadalupe, you must know the story behind her image.

At the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, completed in 1521, the land's Aztec inhabitants worshipped many gods. Twenty years later, some 9 million indigenous people had converted to Christianity. This swing in spirituality dates back, in large part, to 1531 when the Virgin Mary visited Juan Diego, a poor shepherd, at the hill of Tepeyac, northwest of Mexico City.

The Mother of God told Diego, a new convert himself, to make sure the bishop built a temple at the site of her appearance. So there would be no question of her presence, she suggested that Diego fill his cloak with roses -- usually not found on Tepeyac 9 picked from the top of the hill. When he opened his cloak for the bishop, the legend goes that beneath the roses the Virgin's image was imprinted on the fabric.

The story's veracity has been questioned. But the 10 million pilgrims who flock to the Basilica of Guadalupe each year have complete faith, as do most Mexican Catholics residing in America.

The meaning extends beyond religion, says David Knowlton, a Utah Valley State College associate professor of anthropology who specializes in Latin American religiosity. Our Lady of Guadalupe is just as much a symbol of Mexican nationalism, he says, which becomes all the more important when people are living away from home. It's a "sacred image" that links people, "a key social element" that offers comfort and a sense of belonging, he explains.

Knowlton mentions that a small movement of Mexicans seeks distance from this Marianism, claiming the story and the image are reminders of Spanish colonialism of which the people should be free. But for most of the Latino Catholic faithful in Utah, the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe 9 whether it appears in their churches, adorns their home's walls or shows up in a tree trunk 9 means everything.

jravitz@sltrib.com