"Let
not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness
or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection?
Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish?
Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything."
(Words said by of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego)
What comforting words for Juan Diego to hear. And, the Blessed Virgin Mary
talked to him in his language, Nahuatl. She called him "Juanito, Juan
Dieguito ", "the most humble of my sons"; "my son the least"; "my little dear".
He was 57 years old, certainly an old age in a time and place where the male
life expectancy was barely 40. Juan worked hard all his life and was an example
of humility.
How it happened:
In 1523, just two years after the Aztec capital of Tenochitlan fell to Hernán
Cortés and his Conquistadors, the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrivd to
begin the religious conquest of Mexico.
Among their first converts was a man baptized with the Christian name Juan
Diego. On the chilly morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego crossed the barren
hill called Tepeyac to attend Mass. He was brought to a sudden halt by a
blinding light and the sound of heavenly music. Before him appeared an
astounding vision--a beautiful dark-skinned woman who, calling the Indian "my
son", declared herself to be the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She
told Juan Diego it was her desire to have a church built on Tepeyac hill, and
asked him to relay that message to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga.It was no easy task
for the humble Indian to be granted an audience with the top prelate, but the
persistent Juan Diego was finally admitted. The incredulous Bishop demanded that
he be provided with some proof of the unlikely encounter. Confused and fearful,
Juan Diego avoided Tepeyac for several days, but on December 12, while rushing
to find a priest to attend a seriously ill uncle, he took a short cut across the
hill. The Virgin once again appeared and Juan Diego told her of the Bishop's
request. The Virgin instructed him to pick roses from the usually barren and
desolate hill and deliver them to Zumarraga as the sign.
Juan Diego gathered up the miraculous blossoms in his mantle and hurried off to
complete his mission. Once again before the Bishop, he let the roses spill out
before him. To the wonder of all assembled, a perfect image of La Virgen of
Guadalupe was revealed emblazoned on Juan Diego's cloak.
Juan Diego's mantle, carefully preserved in the new Basilica, has been subjected
to extensive analysis over the years. Experts have authenticated the fabric as
dating to the 16th century, but have been unable to determine the type of
pigment from which the image was rendered. It seems doubtful that in the
Colonial era in Mexico human hands were capable of creating a portrait of its
exquisite nature. It is even doubtful it can be done in Mexico today. Most
wonderous of all, after 465 years, the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe remains
clearly imprinted on the miraculous cloak without visible signs of
deterioration.
By order of the Bishop, a small church was soon constructed on the site
designated by the Virgin. Skeptics are quick to point out the unlikely
coincidence of the Virgin's appearance on Tepeyac, the very site of an Aztec
temple dedicated to Tonatzin (earth godess, mother of the gods and protectress
of humanity) which had been devastated by order of Bishop Zumarraga.
The original church was replaced by a larger structure built in 1709. The
Miracle of Guadalupe was officially recognized by the Vatican in 1745. The
second sanctuary was declared a Basilica in 1904. A new Basilica, of modern
design and enormous capacity, was dedicated in October of 1976. This is found in
the northern section of present-day Mexico City.
In this and other churches dedicated to La Virgen de Guadalupe throughout the
nation, millions of the faithful will gather December 12 for processions,
prayers, songs, dances, and fireworks to honor "La Reina de México" (the Queen
of Mexico).
In essence, the Spanish conquest of 1519-1521 destroyed the core of Aztec
religion-the cult of warfare and human sacrifice. The Aztecs were no longer able
to feed the sun, yet the universe survived, and Huitzilopochtli was discredited.
Aztec religion had lost its focus by 1531.
The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on a wholesale scale.
We must remember that the Aztecs offered annually at least 20,000 men, women and
children in human sacrifice to their gods. In 1487, just in a single 4 days long
ceremony for the dedication of a new temple in Tenochtitlan, some 80,000
captives were killed in human sacrifice.
Why should the Virgin Mary appearing to an Indian in recently conquered Mexico
and speaking to him in Nahuatl call herself "of Guadalupe", a Spanish name? Did
she want to be called de Guadalupe because of the statue of Our Lady of
Guadalupe in Estremadura, Spain? Because of Lupita who lived in Nuevo Laredo?
In all apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary she identified herself as the
Virgin Mary and phrases like Mother of God or another of her titles, and was
later usually known by the name of the place or region where she appeared
(Lourdes, Fatima). So why should Mary, when appearing to an Indian in recently
invaded Mexico and speaking in the local language, want to be named with the
Spanish name of Guadalupe? Was she talking about the miraculous statue of Our
Lady of Guadalupe, that was given by Pope Gregory the Great to the Bishop of
Seville, was lost for 600 years and was found in 1326 by a cowherd guided by an
apparition of Our Lady? The statue was named Guadalupe for the village located
near the place of discovery. The origin of the name Guadalupe has always been a
matter of controversy. It is nevertheless believed that the name came about
because of the translation from Nahuatl to Spanish of the words used by the
Virgin during the apparition to the ailing uncle of Juan Diego. It is believed
that Our Lady used the Aztec Nahuatl word of coatlaxopeuh
which is pronounced "quatlasupe" and sounds remarkably
like the Spanish word Guadalupe. Coa meaning serpent,
tla being the noun ending which can be interpreted as "the", while xopeuh means
to crush or stamp out. So Our Lady must have called herself the one "who crushes
the serpent1." Serpent-god Quetzalcoatl. Certainly, in this case She
crushed the serpent, and few years later millions of the natives were converted
to Christianity. And the human sacrifices ended.
1In is interesting to note that in Genesis 3:15 (in the Old
Testament) it is indicated a woman would step on the serpent's head.
After the miracle of Guadalupe, Juan Diego moved to a room attached to the
chapel that housed the sacred image, after having given his business and
property to his uncle; and he spent the rest of his life propagating the account
of the apparitions to his countrymen. He died on May 30, 1548, at the age of 74.
Juan Diego said to the Blessed Virgin Mary: "I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a
tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf" as a model of humility for all of us.
In July of 2002 Juan Diego was canonized (declared a Saint) in the Basicila of
the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
The well known prayer Ave Maria has its roots in Luke I:42 where Elizabeth (who
is Mary's cousin) salutes Mary and in Luke I:28 where the Arch Angel Gabriel
salutes Mary.