San Hipólito stands on the corner of Paseo de la Reforma and Avenida Hidalgo. Its foundation belongs to the aftermath of the conquest, but it is known now as the centre of devotion to San Judas Tadeo in Mexico, drawing very large crowds on the twenty-eighth of every month.
MEXICO · MEXICO CITY19.4372° N · 99.1470° W
Location
Mexico City, Mexico 19.4372° N · 99.1470° W
Type
Church Seventeenth and eighteenth-century, in tezontle with carved stone detail and a tiled dome
Dedication
Saints Hippolytus and Cassian
Time Needed
30 minutes to half a day
Why Go
Where Mexico Comes to Saint Jude
If you want to see how Catholicism is actually practised in this city, come here rather than to a finer building. On the twenty-eighth of every month the streets around San Hipólito fill with people, most of them young, carrying statues of Saint Jude to be blessed and queueing for hours to reach his image. It is the second great popular devotion of Mexico City after Guadalupe, and it is entirely modern.
A Conquest Memorial That Became Something Else
The church's origin lies in 1521. After the fall of Tenochtitlan a hermitage was founded near this spot in memory of the Spanish soldiers killed during the forced retreat from the city the previous year, an event that fell on the feast of Saint Hippolytus. For most of the colonial period the day was marked here with a civic procession. That foundation is a conquest memorial, built on ground that had belonged to the Mexica city, and it should be named as such. The present church is a seventeenth and eighteenth-century building on the same site. Its modern life began much later and quite separately: a chapel dedicated to Saint Jude Thaddaeus was added in the 1950s, his image was given the central place at the main altar in 1982, and devotion to him grew from there into one of the largest recurring gatherings in the Americas. Saint Jude is invoked in Catholic tradition as the patron of desperate and lost causes, and the people who come here on the twenty-eighth are, very often, people in difficulty.
DevotionThe Twenty-Eighth of the MonthDevotees fill the streets around San Hipólito on the twenty-eighth. The crowds are largest on 28 October, the feast of Saint Jude.
Do Not Miss · 3 stops
What to notice.
The image of San Judas Tadeo
The focus of the devotion, given the central place at the main altar since 1982. A chapel dedicated to the saint was added in the 1950s, and the devotion has grown steadily since.
The twenty-eighth of the month
Devotees come in very large numbers on the twenty-eighth, and above all on 28 October, the feast of Saint Jude. The crowds close the surrounding streets and Masses run through the day. It is one of the largest recurring popular devotions in the Americas.
The tezontle walls and tiled dome
The seventeenth and eighteenth-century building is a good example of the centre's dark volcanic stone, with a tiled dome that reads clearly from the Alameda side.
What to notice
The devotion, not the architecture, is why this church matters now. On an ordinary Tuesday it is a quiet church on a traffic island; on the twenty-eighth it is the busiest devotional site in the city after Tepeyac.
The people who come are overwhelmingly young and working class, and many carry statues of the saint to be blessed. Saint Jude is invoked in Catholic tradition as the patron of desperate and lost causes.
The church's origin lies in the aftermath of the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. A hermitage was founded near this spot to commemorate the Spanish dead of the retreat from the city the previous year, on the feast of Saint Hippolytus. For most of the colonial period the date was marked with a civic procession.
That foundation is a conquest memorial, and it stands over ground that belonged to the Mexica city. It is part of the honest history of the building, and it is not what brings anyone here today.
Visit Plans · 2 plans · add to a journey
How much time, and what to do with it.
Duration30 minBest forFirst visit
The church on an ordinary day
The building, the image and the history, on a day when you can actually move around inside.
Duration1 hrBest forPilgrims on a devotion day
The twenty-eighth
3 ordered stops
Come for the devotion rather than the building. Expect queues, closed streets and a long slow procession of people towards the image.
The approach along Hidalgo, through the crowds and the stalls
The queue into the church
The image of San Judas Tadeo
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects
What pilgrims come to venerate here.
The venerated image of San Judas Tadeo
Devotional image
Yes, at the main altar
Archdiocese of Mexico; published histories of the church
Documented
A chapel dedicated to Saint Jude Thaddaeus was added in the 1950s and the image was given the central place at the main altar in 1982. The devotion and its growth are recent and well documented; no ancient tradition is claimed for it.
Source noteTraditional attributions are presented as tradition, with documentation named where it exists.
Continue Your Pilgrimage · Nearby sacred places
Along the Alameda, and across the city
Church
Templo de San Francisco
Fifteen minutes south-east along the Alameda and into Calle Madero.
Church
Templo de la Sagrada Familia
A short ride south to Colonia Roma, where Blessed Miguel Pro is buried.
Map · Mexico City, Mexico
Plan around this place.
Editorial sources
Edited from the Archdiocese of Mexico, published histories of the church and its devotion, and Eternal Roam destination records. The sixteenth-century foundation and the modern devotion are described separately, and the crowd conditions on the twenty-eighth are given as they are reported rather than as a schedule. Confirm current arrangements before visiting on a devotion day.
