This Friday is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was on December 9, 1531 that Our Lady first appeared to Juan Diego on a hill outside of Mexico City. Juan Diego was a poor Catholic who had been converted and baptized into the faith a few years before. At that time, Dec 9 was the feast day of the Immaculate Conception; it was this day that Our Lady first appeared to Juan Diego as he was on his way to mass. As he passed a hill, he heard a voice calling him “Juanito!” This means “Little Juan”, or “Johnny”, just how a mother would call her son. He came to the top of the hill and there he saw a beautiful, Aztec woman. She shone like the sun and the plants around her sparkled like diamonds. She said “I am truly your merciful mother, yours and mother of all who live united in this land…of all those who love me.”

Juan ran off to see the bishop and told him what he had seen and asked that a chapel be built there. The bishop wasn’t convinced. So Juan left. Soon, Our Lady appeared to him again on the same hill. He was worried that she would be angry that he had failed to make the bishop believe but instead she comforted him and asked him to see the bishop again. This time the bishop was more receptive but he asked for some sort of proof other than Juan’s story itself. Juan saw Our Lady for a third time, and she gladly gave him a proof. But this is not before he tried to avoid her! His uncle was dying and he was hurrying past the hill to get the priest, he didn’t want to be detained by Our Lady so he tried to get past without her seeing him! Of course she saw him anyway asked what was wrong. He told her and this is her response:

“Am I not here, I who am your mother? Are you not in my shadow, under my protection? …Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in my crossed arms? Is there anything else you need? Don't let anything afflict you…Let not the sickness of your uncle cause pain… Be assured that he is well.”

At that very moment his dying uncle recovered. Juan would not find out until later, though, because he asked immediately for permission to be sent back to the bishop. Our Lady told him to climb to the top of the hill and pick the flowers there (this would have been a miracle because flowers would not have been in bloom at the time). He did so, and put all of the flowers in his tilma, which is a rough apron that Indian peasants wore. He held it up and formed a sort of basket. These flowers were to be his proof to the bishop.

Coming to the bishop, he knelt down and unfolded the tilma so that the flowers fell to the floor, and there on the tilma, previously unseen, was the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. All who saw the image believed and a chapel was built to house the sacred image. The image was examined carefully, showing no signs of having been painted: no brush strokes, no fading, no pigment on top of the cloth. The image itself was infused into the tilma by no human hand. Even modern science agrees with this assessment, having examined the image with infrared photography and chemically sampled the colors and fibers. The image is not a painting. Furthermore, an extreme close-up of her eyes shows optical images following the curvature caused by the cornea, accurately reflected in them, including the kneeling figure of Juan Diego and the Bishop; this was (and is) impossible for an artist to create.












[above left is an image of Juan Diego in the Virgin's eye. Directly below is Juan Diego; notice how similar they are? On the right another image in the Virgin's eye; the figures of the bishop and other witnesses to the miracle]


The survival of the image is a miracle. For 500 years it has not faded or fallen apart even though the coarse tilma is not a prepared canvas and would be expected to corrupt. Similar paintings on tilmas have fallen apart after a mere 7 years. The image has survived continuous candle smoke, extreme humidity, and even a bomb. In 1921 anti-catholic soldiers bombed the altar. The crucifix was twisted out of shape and the marble heavily damaged. The image, hanging directly above the altar, was perfectly fine!

The image itself is humble and beautiful. We refer to her as Guadalupe but it is likely that the actual name she gave to Juan Diego was not the Spanish Guadalupe but rather the native Aztec name, “Tequatlasupe” meaning “She who crushes the serpent.” This is a reference to the Immaculate Conception and is a name that brought both Europeans and Natives together under one Mother. The apparition caused the largest conversion in the history of mankind; in 6 years 8 million were baptized and the new world was changed forever. Quite simply, Dec 12, the day the image appeared, is the most important date in American history. An entire people was saved, the constant sacrifice of children in the Aztec temples was halted, and Our Lady became the patroness of all. We would do well to ask her intercession for our nation in a time when we too seem to have become willing to sacrifice our unborn children to our own religion of convenience and fear. She is the Immaculate Conception, Our Mother, and none who come to her for help will fall from her loving arms.