Julio Cesar, a 19-year-old metalworker, crawled on his knees for five hours to reach the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Surrounded by four of his friends, who had to physically support him in the final meters as he scaled the steps of the huge church, Cesar was fulfilling a promise.

“I asked the Virgin to look after my children,” he said, his young face burned red by the sun on this December day. His prayers were answered, he said, and this was his act of thanks to her.

Cesar was one of an estimated 7 million Mexican Catholics who made the annual pilgrimage to the basilica in Mexico City this week. Today is expected to bring the largest numbers of people to the spot that tradition holds is where the Virgin de Guadalupe, Mexico’s most revered saint, first appeared.

Bertin Nava, a salesman, and his girlfriend Mayra Sanchez, a hairdresser, both from the working class Iztapalapa neighborhood of Mexico City, walked hand in hand towards the church. Each of them had a small statue of the Virgin tucked under an arm.

“This is a family tradition. My father started coming when I was small and started the custom of coming every year, walking from the house to here,” said Nava.

He and Mayra had been walking for six hours. Nearby, Ricardo Lozano walked for two and a half days from Atlixco, in the central state of Puebla. He arrived Thursday. He had a thick blanket rolled and tied to his back, and walked gingerly on feet rubbed raw by his boots.

But he was in high spirits.

“I have a strong faith and wanted to make the journey to the Virgin,” he said.

Two churches actually stand on Tepeyac hill in the north of Mexico City, known as La Villa de Guadalupe – the old and the new basilicas. Both were besieged by visitors Thursday, many of them with heavy, wooden-framed effigies of the Virgin tied to their backs.

The show of faith was a formidable sight.

This post was written and recorded for La Plaza.

Image: Julio Cesar, a 19-year-old metalworker, crawled on his knees for five hours yesterday to reach the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times. Go to Flickr to see more photos of the annual pilgrimage.

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The religious icons are being bourn by Mexico’s millions of faithful, who for the last few days have been making the annual pilgrimage, many from miles away, to the city’s two Basilicas de Guadalupe.

Today is to many Mexicans one of the most important days in the religious calendar, and millions will make the trip to the city’s Tepeyac Hill, where the Virgin of Guadalupe is believed to have first appeared nearly five centuries ago. People come from all over Mexico, many of them traveling- some even walking – from states such as Morelos, Hidalgo and Queretaro.

The usual Mexican street fare mixes with the pilgrims along the avenue; homeless men nattering to themselves and Mexican families selling steaming tamales and tacos. Hundreds of ‘puestos’, the makeshift stalls that crowd Mexico City’s streets, are piled high with more religious merchandise a person could ever need; statues of the Virgin, Jesus and all manner of saints, rosary beads, mantels, shrines, icons to hang on the wall….even T-shirts bearing the Virgin’s image.

To pass through the gates leading to the Basilica of Guadalupe in the days surrounding this festival is to get an insight into the strength of many people’s religious faith in Mexico. Tents are dotted around the churches where people have been camped for days. People shelter from the sun under blankets attached to the surrounding fences as they await today’s religious ceremonies. Whole families sit on the ground in clusters, eating tamales and leaning against each other to prop themselves up.

And as the Basilica gets closer, it becomes apparent that there are people approaching it on their knees.

A man with a small baby in his arms shuffles up to the church stairs, only getting to his feet when reaching the base of the Basilica. Behind him is a young girl with a bunch of flowers clutched to her bosom, walking on her knees towards the church.

And to my side, a girl in an orange T-shirt clings to the forearms of a friend standing in front of her as she struggles along painfully.

Towards the gates is a young man of no more than twenty with the legs of his jeans rolled up so as to bare his knee-caps for the concrete ground.

Around the side of the Basilica people cluster in front of a make-shift altar behind which stands a priest. They hold their pictures of the Virgin aloft as the priest carries out group blessings, scattering holy water across the crowd.

Today was the scene of masses and other religious ceremonies through with the faithful pay respects to the Virgin and reaffirm their faith. Whether you’re a believer or not, the proof of faith is awesome to behold.