For most Mexicans, however, Thursday's announcement is simply a formality. In
                 their hearts, there was never any question of Juan Diego's religious status.

                 "Before this, I didn't even know he wasn't an official saint," Martin Ramirez said,
                 showing his 10- and 12-year-old sons the church built above Juan Diego's home in
                 Cuautitlan, finished in the 17th century and now surrounded by one of Mexico
                 City's many sprawling suburbs.

                 Although there has been controversy about whether Juan Diego's story is true,
                 most in Mexico believe he saw a vision of an olive-skinned Virgin Mary on
                 December 12, 1531, while standing on a hill that was also the site of an old Aztec
                 shrine. Miraculously, the vision of a woman in a blue mantle trimmed with gold
                 became emblazoned on his cloak.

                 Today, believers pack moving walkways that slowly file past that same cape of
                 cactus fibers, on display at Mexico City's famous Basilica de Guadalupe.

                 On Thursday, Pope John Paul II approved Juan Diego's elevation to sainthood after
                 the Vatican certified that he had performed a miracle in 1990 by answering a
                 mother's prayers to save the life of her son, who jumped from a building and
                 cracked his skull.

                 The date for his canonization has not yet been set.

                 Juan Diego's Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patroness and likely the country's most
                 beloved symbol, is everywhere here. Taxi drivers construct tiny shrines on the
                 floors of their Volkswagen bugs, while street vendors hawk everything from lamps
                 to key chains featuring her likeness.

                 "She's our God," Martinez said. "The Spanish didn't bring her to us."

                 In 1996, the abbot of the basilica, Guillermo Schulenburg, caused an uproar when
                 he told a church magazine that Juan Diego "is a symbol, not a reality." He also said
                 the 1990 beatification of Juan Diego by Pope John Paul II "is a recognition of a
                 cult. It is not a recognition of the physical, real existence of the person."

                 He resigned later that year under heavy pressure.

                 By the 18th ce ntury, Guadalupe had become so important to the church that she
                 was declared patron saint of Mexico. She was declared patroness of the Philippines
                 in 1935, and in 1946, Pope Pius XII declared her patron saint of all the Americas.

                 Scholarly debates about whether the story is true are lost on the millions of true
                 believers. In mid-December, hundreds of thousands walk, drive or bicycle long
                 distances to the simple, stone church and modern chapel, both built above Juan
                 Diego's mud-walled home, to leave behind prayers and offerings. At the basilica,
                 where the Virgin is said to have appeared, faithful pack the grounds on a daily
                 basis, buying trinkets with the Virgin's image to remember their trip.

                 Still, news of Juan Diego's impending canonization has received little attention from
                 many Mexicans. On Wednesday, only a few people wandered the vast grounds of
                 Juan Diego's home, and a giant statue of the soon-to-be saint gazed out over an
                 empty chapel. Nothing special was planned Thursday to celebrate the Vatican's
                 announcement.

                 Constructing a nativity scene at the front of an empty church, employee Elvira
                 Bernal said the news hadn't prompted many visitors.

                 "The recognition is important, but for the people here, he's already a saint," she
                 said.

                 Mexicans worship dozens of "saints" who have yet to be recognized by the Roman
                 Catholic Church -- and many who never will be. There's Juan Soldado, or Soldier
                 John, the patron saint of illegal immigrants, and Jesus Malverde, the saint of drug
                 traffickers, to name a few.

                 But Juan Diego is different, a figure that nearly every Mexican knows and loves.

                 Natalia Castillo traveled 990 miles to baptize her 1-year-old son, Emiliano Sanchez,
                 at the church above Juan Diego's home.

                 "Now that they are going to canonize him, it will be something that (my son) can
                 have with him forever," she said.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.