OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, Mexico City, Mexico, 1531, THE FIRST VISION: WHEN Juan Diego, a fifty-five-year-old Indian who lived five miles north of Mexico City, was hurrying on Tepeyac Hill to attend Mass at a Franciscan mission, he heard a great many birds singing. Then, when they stopped, he heard a woman’s voice calling him, not by his name, but by the affectionate diminutive, “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.” She then asked, “Juan, smallest and dearest of my little children, where were you going?” After he explained that he was on his way to attend Holy Mass, the Lady said: Know for certain, dearest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God, through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things, who is Master of Heaven and Earth. I ardently desire a temple be built here for me where I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes. Therefore, in order to realize my intentions, go to the house of the bishop of Mexico City and tell him that I sent you and that it is my desire to have a temple built here. Tell him all that you have seen and heard. Be assured that I shall be very grateful and will reward you for doing diligently what I have asked of you. Now that you have heard my words, my son, go and do everything as best as you can.
THE SECOND VISION: When the bishop showed little interest in Juan’s story of the apparition, Juan Diego returned to the hill and found the vision waiting for him. Pleading with her that she should send someone more worthy to deliver her message, he was told, “Listen, little son. There are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen for this task. Tomorrow morning, go back to the bishop. Tell him it is the ever holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God who sends you, and repeat to him my great desire for a church in this place.” Once again Juan visited the bishop who again dismissed him politely.
THE THIRD VISION: Juan Diego had already visited the bishop twice, but then, during the third visit, since Juan Diego seemed sincere and honest, the bishop asked for a sign from the Lady. This Juan duly reported to the Lady during her third apparition. This fourth and final vision of Juan Diego took place on December 12 when Juan was hurrying to fetch a priest for his dying uncle. Suddenly the Lady appeared and asked where he was going. To his troubled explanation, the Lady spoke these consoling words: Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need? Do not let the illness of your uncle worry you because he is not going to die of his sickness. At this very moment he is cured.
The Lady then asked Juan to walk higher up the hill and collect the roses found there—this in spite of the rocky nature of the place, its unsuitability for the growth of any type of vegetation, and the December weather that was hostile to the development of roses. Nevertheless, Juan found a number of roses which he gathered in the scoop of his Tilma, a cloak made of cactus fibers that was worn by the Indians. The Lady arranged the flowers and cautioned him against disturbing or revealing his burden except in the presence of the bishop. When Juan opened his cloak for the prelate, he found not the usual rejection and skepticism, he had received before, but the bishop kneeling among the flowers, looking in reverential awe at a picture miraculously applied to the cloak—an exact likeness that Juan Diego identified as the Lady he had seen four times on Tepeyac Hill. When Juan Diego returned home after this miracle, his uncle related how the Lady had appeared to him and had restored him to perfect health. (This was actually the fifth appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.) Because of the clamor of the people to pray before the image, the bishop had the cloak installed above the altar of the cathedral. Later it was placed above the altar of the church that was built according to the Lady’s request. Juan Diego lived seventeen years following the apparition. During that time he was appointed as the official custodian of the cloak and was ever ready to relate the apparitions and to answer all questions. He lived in a small room attached to the church and died at the age of seventy-four in the year 1548. He was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II during his visit to Mexico on May 6, 1990, and was canonized during another visit to Mexico by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002.
THE TILMA: The Tilma, it is cactus cloth made from the maguey plant that usually disintegrates within twenty years and is a fabric similar to loose sacking. During its many examinations, it has been observed that the weave is so loose that if one stands behind it, the features of the basilica can be seen as clearly as through a trellis. The garment is made of three strips, each one measuring twenty-one inches in width by seventy-eight inches in length, with the image imprinted on two of the strips. In its golden frame, the third panel, which hung on Juan’s back, is folded behind the two front panels. The two panels are joined with the original loose stitching that can be seen running the length of the panel along the left ear of the figure, down the left wrist to the knee and passing to the side of the angel’s head. The figure of Our Lady measures four feet, eight inches in height. Artists confirm that the Tilma is a fabric wholly unsuited to the application of paint. They have reported that the portrait was painted without brush strokes, but like a wash in four different media: oil, tempera, watercolor and fresco. The application of these paints was so permanent that, compared to man-made paintings dating from 1531, the image has required no restoration and remains to this day an artistic marvel. In 1666, 135 years after the apparition, a Painter’s Commission was formed to study the miraculous portrait. During the same year a Scientific Board also examined it and praised it as being the work of God “Who alone is able to produce miraculous effects above all the forces of nature.” In addition, a University of Florida biophysicist examined the portrait in 1979 and declared that “… the painting is miraculous.”
Through the years, additions were made to the cloak. The gilding, the silver added to the moon, and other embellishments have flaked or faded away while the original features have remained the same. A discovery was made in 1929, when the eyes of the portrait were examined. Reportedly, a bearded face is seen in them, a shoulder, and part of a halo in a three-quarter image. This likeness matches exactly the contemporary portraits of Juan Diego. The finding was confirmed in 1951, and again in 1956, by renowned and respected oculists. The natives who first studied the image read messages that were not apparent to others. Since the Lady stood in front of the sun, they understood that she was greater than their sun god Huitzilopochtli. Their moon god, Tezcatlipoca, likewise lost stature since the Lady stood upon the moon’s crescent. The brooch at her throat with its small black cross reminded the Indians of the crucifixes of the Spanish friars and the symbol on the banner of Captain Hernando Cortes. That she was held aloft by a child with wings signaled her as a heavenly being, yet her hands joined in prayer meant that there was one who was greater. The white fur on the neck and sleeves was taken as a mark of royalty as was the forty-six golden stars and the border of gold. The bluish-green of the mantle was taken as a color reserved to divinity. It was the reading of the picture that converted whole tribes to the Faith.
Of the forty-five popes who have reigned since the creation of the miraculous portrait, twenty-five have issued decrees concerning it. The first was Pope Gregory XIII, dated 1575. Indulgences were granted by other pontiffs, including Pope Benedict XIV in 1754 who wrote: In the image everything is miraculous, an image emanating from flowers gathered on completely barren soil on which only prickly shrubs can grow … an image in no manner deteriorated, neither in her supreme loveliness nor in its sparkling color… God has not done likewise to any other nation. Three popes have ordered the crowning of the image, and Pope John Paul II visited Mexico on five occasions, the first taking place in January 1979. On each of his visits, he prayed before the 450-year-old image of Our Lady. The miraculous portrait continues to intrigue its viewers, puzzle artists, and baffle scientists.
