By Kitty Alvarado, Video Journalist

The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a big event in the Coachella Valley. Thousands gathered at Our Lady of Solitude Catholic Church in Palm Springs for a mass at 4:00 a.m., then, set off on a 35 mile pilgrimage in honor of the Patroness of the Americas. The spiritual journey to Our Lady of Soledad Church in Coachella takes over 12 hours.  

"I am tired but I do this as my faith," says Coachella resident Ana Ceja who has been participating in the walk for 6 years. 

This December 12, marked the 485 anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgen of Guadalupe in Mexico, where according to official Catholic accounts she left her image emblazoned on the cloak of an indigenous man named Juan Diego. 

"And that's the only image that we have that Mary has actually left anywhere in our world," says Father Alberto Guido of San Luis Rey Catholic Church, adding that the Guadalupe's apparitions were a miracle that resulted in a church being built on a hill. 

Believers, like Irene Mora, who lives in Cathedral City, say the Day of La Virgen de Guadalupe is a day to give thanks, "Because of all the blessings that God has given to my family and to everybody."

But it's also a day many ask for answered prayers. 

Mora says she's asking for the health of several family members including a friend with cancer, "I'm asking for my husband to get well ... Virgin Mary is asking God to make a miracle for me." 

Father Guido says the faithful trust La Virgen de Guadalupe as a messenger, "We ask Mary to intercede to pray for us before God."

And others like Ceja walk to fulfill a promise, "I promised her as long as I have my legs and my arms to walk I was going to do this every year for her," she says. 

This year the pilgrims also carried a banner in memory of the two fallen Palm Springs Police officers, Officer Jose "Gil" Vega and Officer Lesley Zerebny. 

Father Guido says the message of the day is simple, "It's a message of hope, peace and unity.