Our Lady of Guadalupe by SIN

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

According to the traditional account, the image appeared miraculously on the cloak of Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City on December 12, 1531.

The icon is on display in the Basilica of Guadalupe in the same locality and is regarded as Mexico's most popular religious and cultural image.  The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe represents the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent, her long flowing garments held up by the arms of an angel; her eyes are looking down with an expression of compassion and humility, apparently at someone on a lower level. She is standing in a glowing halo as though before the sun. There are stars on her mantle and a moon at her feet. This subservient positioning has been interpreted as showing the Aztecs that the sun, the moon, and the stars are not gods to be worshipped. Her dress is that of a Middle Eastern maiden at the time of Christ as can be seen even today in the women inhabiting that land.

The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Early morning of Dec. 9, 1531, the FIRST apparition of Our Lady, Juan Diego was on his way to  Mass. As he walked the hill of Tepeyac, he heard singing and, looking up, he saw a beautiful, young
lady who spoke saying:

"You must know that I am truly the perpetual and perfect Virgin Mary … I am your merciful Mother … the Mother of all Mankind … Here, I will hear their weeping, their sorrow and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes …"

On that same morning of Dec. 9, Juan Diego went to Bishop Zumarraga, as commanded by Our Lady, and delivered her message.

Not surprisingly, the Bishop responded with pious caution and told Juan Diego to come back  another time. Juan Diego returned to the hill of Tepeyac at about sunset of the same day,
Dec. 9. Our Lady appeared a SECOND time, exactly as he had seen her at dawn. Juan Diego urged her to send someone else, someone more distinguished, to the Bishop saying:

"I am only a poor man, I am not worthy of being there where you send me. Pardon me, My Queen. I do not want to make your noble heart sad. I do not want to fall into your displeasure."


But Our Lady told him that it was he, and no other, whom she wished to send. She commanded him to go back to Bishop Zumarraga the following day. Juan Diego left her, calling her:

"My dear one, My Lady…"

The next day, Dec. 10, a Sunday, Juan Diego went again to the Bishop's house and, after much difficulty with the guards, gained admittance.

The Bishop questioned him, more impressed this time. But the Bishop explained that Our Lady must provide a SIGN that she really was the Mother of God.

Then the Bishop sent two attendants to follow and spy on Juan Diego, but they lost his track.

At sunset of Dec. 10, Juan Diego was back on the hill of Tepeyac to report to Our Lady who was already waiting for him.

He informed her that the Bishop was asking for a SIGN, (Our Lady, of course, knew what SIGN the Bishop was asking for). This was her THIRD apparition.

Our Lady assured him that the next day she would give him the SIGN the Bishop had asked for.

After conversing with Our Lady, Juan Diego went home. That evening, upon arrival, he found his uncle, Juan Bernardino, very ill.

The next day, Monday, Dec. 11, he cared for his uncle the whole day, missing his appointment with Our Lady and Bishop Zumarraga.

Juan Bernardino, thinking he was going to die, told his nephew to fetch a priest the next day for the Last Sacraments. Dec. 12, Tuesday morning, Juan Diego started out and intentionally avoided passing the top of Tepeyac hill out of fear and embarrassment because he had not kept his promise to return there to meet Our Lady the previous day.

Also, he did not want to be delayed by Our Lady from fetching a priest since he believed so much in the importance of the Last Sacraments for the dying.

But while passing the other side of the hill to avoid Our Lady, Juan Diego was surprised to meet her along his path. This was the FOURTH apparition.

Our Lady asked him where he was going. He explained about his sick uncle and how he was busy caring for him the previous day. Our Lady said:

"Listen and be sure, my dear son, that I will protect you: do not be frightened or grieved or let your
heart be dismayed… Am I not here, who am your Mother, and is not my help a refuge …? Be assured, he is already well … Is there anything else you need?"

And even as Our Lady spoke she appeared to Juan Bernardino and cured him.

Dec. 12. Our Lady then told Juan Diego to climb the hill where only cactuses, thistles and  hornbrush grew. Juan Diego had never seen a flower there. But when he reached the top, it was
covered with beautiful Castillian roses, wet with dew and of exquisite fragrance.

After Juan Diego had gathered the roses, he took them to Our Lady who arranged them with her own hands in his tilma and tied a knot behind his neck to hold the roses in place.  Then Our Lady said:

"This is the SIGN that you must take to the Lord Bishop … In my name tell him that with this he will see and recognize my will and that he must do what I ask … he will
see that the church is built for which I ask."

Dec. 12. Juan Diego arrived at the Bishop's house. He was again kept waiting. The attendants forced Juan Diego to show them what he was keeping in his tilma. But what they saw were mere
"printed or embroidered roses."

Finally admitted to the Bishop's presence, Juan Diego opened his cloak. The fresh and beautiful roses cascaded to the floor. And behold, a full portrait of Our Lady began to appear on the tilma right before the eyes of the Bishop, as if painted by heavenly hands.

In the imprint, Our Lady had her hands joined in prayer, her soft black hair falling gently upon her
shoulders under her cape and framing the perfect oval of her face with slightly closed eyes and a light smile. . . a miraculous legacy for all generations to see and know the TRUE FACE of Our Lady.


Seeing the SIGN he had asked for, the Castillian roses, and beholding the miraculous imprinting of Our Lady 's image on the tilma before his own eyes, Bishop Zumarraga fell to his knees.

Before him was the True Image and form of Our Lady, Her own self-portrait. He wept as he prayed for forgiveness for having doubted her and her messenger, Juan Diego.


It seems that when Juan Diego opened his tilma and the roses fell to the floor, Our Lady, who was behind Bishop Zumarraga facing Juan Diego, allowed her image to be imprinted on the tilma as if reflected in a mirror. But She was there as a silent witness to the unfolding event, unseen by all, including Juan Diego.


Regaining his composure, the Bishop reverently removed the tilma from Juan Diego and enshrined it in his private chapel.

Juan Diego remained with Bishop Zumarraga that evening narrating the events of the past few days. Both were filled with wonder at the things God had wrought in their midst.


In two weeks time, an adobe chapel was erected to house the tilma for public veneration. It was dedicated by Bishop Zumarraga on Dec. 26, 1531.

From that time on, everybody came to venerate the surprisingly beautiful image...and people have been coming ever since--day and night, season after season, century after century.


Later, the Church would proclaim Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of all the Americas. In 1935, Our Lady of Guadalupe was formally proclaimed the Patroness of the Philippine Islands.

Source: S of G Foundation

Guadalupe is strictly the name of a picture, but was extended to the church containing the picture and to the town that grew up around. The word is Spanish Arabic, but in Mexico it may represent certain Aztec sounds.



The place, styled Guadalupe Hidalgo since 1822 — as in our 1848 treaty — is three miles northeast of Mexico City. Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine almost uninterruptedly since 1531-32. In
the latter year there was a shrine at the foot of Tepeyac Hill which served for ninety years, and still, in part, forms the parochial sacristy.

In 1622 a rich shrine was erected; a newer one, much richer, in 1709. Other structures of the eighteenth century connected with it are a parish church, a convent and church for Capuchin nuns, a
well chapel, and a hill chapel. About 1750 the shrine got the title of collegiate, a canonry and
choir service being established. It was aggregated to St. John Lateran in 1754; and finally, in 1904 it was created a basilica. The presiding ecclesiastic is called abbot.

The picture really constitutes Guadalupe. It makes the shrine: it occasions the devotion. It is taken as representing the Immaculate Conception, being the lone figure of the woman with the sun, moon, and star accompaniments of the great apocalyptic sign, and in addition a supporting angel under the
crescent.

Sworn evidence was given at various commissions of inquiry corroborating the traditional account of the miraculous origin and influence of the picture. Some wills connected with Juan Diego and his
contemporaries were accepted as documentary evidence. Vouchers were given for the existence of Bishop Zumárraga's letter to his Franciscan brethren in Spain concerning the apparitions. His
successor, Montufar, instituted a canonical inquiry, in 1556, on a sermon in which the pastors and people were abused for crowing to the new shrine. In 1568 the renowned historian Bernal Díaz, a companion of Cortez, refers incidentally to Guadalupe and its daily miracles. The lay viceroy,

Enríquez, while not opposing the devotion, wrote in 1575 to Philip II asking him to prevent the third archbishop from erecting a parish and monastery at the shrine; inaugural pilgrimages were usually made to it by viceroys and other chief magistrates. Processes,national and ecclesiastical, were laboriously formulated and attested for presentation at Rome, in 1663, 1666, 1723, 1750.

The clergy, secular and regular, has been remarkably faithful to the devotion towards Our Lady of Guadalupe, the bishops especially fostering it, even to the extent of making a protestation of faith in the miracle a matter of occasional obligation. The present pontiff [1910] is the nineteenth pope to favour the shrine and its tradition. Benedict XIV and Leo XIII were its two strongest supporters. The former pope decreed that Our Lady of Guadalupe should be the national patron, and made 12 December a holiday of obligation with an octave, and ordered a special Mass and Office; the latter
approved a complete historical second Nocturne, ordered the picture to be crowned in his name, and composed a poetical inscription for it. Pius X has recently permitted Mexican priests to say the
Mass of Holy Mary of Guadalupe on the twelfth day of every month and granted indulgences which
may be gained in any part of the world for prayer before a copy of the picture. A miraculous Roman
copy for which Pius IX ordered a chapel is annually celebrated among the "Prodigia" of 9 July.

 

A Scientific Note About St. Juan Diego's Tilma

by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

Various news reports in the past have suggested that the tilma (mantle, cloak) of St. Juan Diego depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe is phony. One opinion was a fake made in Europe and brought to Mexico by Franciscans. Another suggested the tilma was painted over the image of a dark-eyed Aztec goddess. Both conjectures have been proven false. The recent canonization of Juan Diego provides another opportunity to put these erroneous notions to rest for good.

John J. Chiment teaches in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a paleontologist who teaches a course about determining the age, materials, and place of origin of art works. Four years ago Dr. Gilberto Aquirre, a San Antonio, Texas, physician, requested him to join a team to examine St. Juan Diego's tilma portraying Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Dr. Aquirre invited the team of scientists to examine the eyes of the icon. Professor Chiment's special task was to comment on the age and composition of the fabric and pigments. He visited the shrine in Mexico City twice, did tests on fibers at Cornell, and reported his findings to Dr. Aquirre, and to the Archbishop of Mexico City and his staff.

European Origin Theory

Those who subscribed to the European origin theory said the tilma could not be a local Mexican product because it has lasted so long. Local cloth made from woven cactus fibers lasts about a decade at most. The tilma is almost five hundred years old, and has been on display in public daily. People behind this theory said the tilma must be woven from European linen or cotton.

Two fibers of the tilma were lent to Professor Chiment for testing. These fibers had been removed from the outer edge of the tilma when it was stored during the Mexican Revolution. The test results showed that the fibers did not come from native cactus plants, nor did they come from cotton, wool, or linen -- fibers that might have been used in Europe. Rather, the tilma seems to have been woven from hemp, a plant native to Mexico. Hemp is one of the strongest fibers known, and hempen cloth can last hundreds of years. This could explain the tilma's remarkable state of preservation.

The Aztec Goddess Theory

Those who proposed the Aztec goddess theory thought that photographs taken in ultraviolet light show an under painting (pentimento) of a dark-eyed, somewhat frightening woman.

Professor Chiment reported that ultraviolet photography does not expose images in paintings. Instead, ultraviolet light shows clearly the application of paint over another image. This shows when an original has been touched up, usually with a clear varnish. In this instance it appears that patches of varnish were applied over the eyes of the original image. Conservationists often use these varnish patches to protect a surface. Today ultraviolet photography can help conservators remove the added varnish layer.

To determine if there is really an under painting on Juan Diego's tilma, photographs need to be taken with light from the infrared part of the spectrum.

These two theories about the European origin and the Aztec goddess regarding the tilma with Our Lady's image are simply incorrect. Ordinary scientific tests have disproved them.

Professor Chiment expressed hope that additional testing will be permitted. He recommends an examination using neutron-activation analysis and x-ray fluorescence. This might reveal details about the pigments of the image and the history of the tilma and could guide measures to conserve and safeguard the holy image.

The Real Significance of Juan Diego's Tilma

The faithful cannot conceive of Our Lady of Guadalupe without St. Juan Diego's tilma. Because of this tilma she has been present to us for centuries. Msgr. Virgilio Elizondo explains, "In the Indian cultures of that time, the tilma was the exterior expression of the innermost identity of the person. By being visible on Juan Diego's tilma, Mary became imprinted in the deepest recesses of his heart -- and in the hearts of all who come to her." Our Lady of Guadalupe is not simply an image on the tilma, as miraculous as this is. She has become part her children's innermost identity.

 

Juan Diego was canonized by Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2002. Pope John Paul II praised Juan Diego for his simple faith nourished by catechesis and pictured him (who 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."

 

I like the occult aspect of the 'paper or embroidered roses' which appeared to the Bishop as Castillian roses, and the image of Our Lady Guadalupe.

 

 

 

On December 12th each year, all of Mexico celebrates the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the nation’s most beloved miraculous image. It is permanently printed on a 400 year old piece of ordinary agave cloth which hangs in the basilica in Mexico City at the foot of Tepeyac Hill. It is on that hilltop that Mary with the complexion and royal colors of an Aztec appeared to a lowly peasant, Juan Diego, four centuries ago.

If you want to do something on this date, let me know. I can think of a gazillion ideas, to include making scented paper roses.

 

 

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Aztec goddess? by Xoc

However, there is another side to the story. Before the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the hill where Juan Diego had his vision had also been the site of an ancient temple to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin (Our Revered Mother), later leveled to the ground by the Spaniards.

According to the great Franciscan ethnographer Sahagun "Our Mother" Tonan was also known as Ilamatecuhtli (a noble old woman) and Cozcamiauh (a necklace of maize flowers).

Aztec deities could not only be of double gender but different names represented different facets of the character of the same deity. Tonantzin, therefore, may be associated with the dread goddess Cihuacoatl (a serpent woman), whom Sahagun identified not with the Virgin Mary, but with Our Mother Eve and her encounter with the serpent of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.

Like most other Spanish missionaries, Sahagun was absolutely convinced that all Mesoamerican gods and goddesses were manifestations of the Devil. In the clash between Christian saints and Mesoamerican deities, it is not surprising therefore that the original Virgin Mary was eventually transformed into a beautiful dark-skinned Virgin encountered by Juan Diego.

The fortunes of Juan Diego have likewise waxed and waned over the centuries.

Depending on the source, Juan Diego was either a humble peasant lad wandering over the hill of Tepeyac or one of the most influential and powerful men in the Aztec Empire at the time of the Conquest.

When the Vatican decided to canonize him, their investigation reportedly revealed that the humble Indian lad had actually been a prince, the son of a king of Texcoco, who helped Cortes defeat the Aztecs. His royal blood and social standing are sometimes said to account for the large numbers of Indians who were baptized after the apparition of the Virgin in 1531.

In this particular account Juan Diego is a royal prince and a warrior, called the Tlacateccatl (he who commands the warriors), an honorific title given to the general in command of a troop of 8,000 men. One may indeed speculate that Juan Diego could have been transformed from a noble to a peasant under the influence of the Spanish missionaries to make his supernatural encounter on Tepeyac more congenial to the natives and thus encourage their conversion to Christianity.

Juan Diego was canonized by John Paul II on July 31, 2002; his feast day is December 9.

A mestizo deity

There are several different definitions of truth, all equally valid depending on your point of view.

For example, it is true that the Basilica of Guadalupe at Tepeyac was constructed on the site of the former temple of Tonantzin. That is an established historical fact or relative truth.




The first deals with concrete or factual evidence, such as textual analysis or archaeological artifacts, the second with theology, metaphysics, and matters of belief or faith. These two approaches to truth are not necessarily confrontational but may in fact be complimentary.

Accordingly, the ancient Aztec belief in Tonantzin and the Christian faith in the Virgin Mary are not necessarily contradictory.

Christianity in Mexico has been described as Mesoamerican Catholicism, an inextricable blending of Pre-Hispanic religion with the symbols and tenets of Christianity. In the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Indians in Mexico simply transferred their beliefs and practices from Tonantzin, the Goddess of the Earth, to Mary, the Mother of God. In the process, the Indians also transformed the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church to conform with and support their own Pre-Hispanic religion and world outlook. At least this is one point of view.

The original story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is told in detail in the Nican Mopohua ("Here it is told"), a section of a larger work known as "The Great Event," a Nahuatl document published in 1649 by Luis de la Vega. It is in the form of a dialogue between Juan Diego and the "Noble Queen of Heaven, Forever Virgin, Mother of God" in which the Virgin instructs Diego how to convince Bishop Zumarraga of the truth of her apparition. She then instructs him to build a church for her on the Hill of Tepeyac. The document ends with acknowledgment of the divine character of the image on the cloak of Juan Diego. For Catholics, this confirms the validity of the church in Mexico and the role of the Virgin of Guadalupe (or Tonantzin) as a symbol of the Republic of Mexico.

In section # 26 of the Nican Mopohua, the Virgin states that she is "Mother of the One Great God of Truth (In Huelnelli Teotl Dios), the One Through Whom We All Live (Ipalnemohuani), the Creator of People (In Teoyocoyani), the Lord of the Near and the Far (In Tloque in Nahuaque), etc."

These are a few of the key terms in understanding and interpreting Nahuatl literature. They are found in a number of poems ascribed to poets who lived before the Conquest of Mexico.

The problem is to explain how these poems — which were composed without the use of writing as we know it — got into the written form we have today.

The presence of Christian terms, such as "Dios," "Santa Maria," and "Obispo" scattered throughout these poems have led some scholars to postulate that they were not only composed and written after the Conquest but show more Christian influence than pre-Hispanic tradition.

While any discussion of the question of authenticity is outside the scope of this article, the use of these terms by Catholic writers is not. For example, one writer argues that in section # 26 of the Nican Mopohua, the Virgin is saying that she is the Mother of all the ancient Aztec deities! It follows from this, according to this writer, that the Virgin has incorporated the whole of Nahuatl (Aztec) philosophy and theology into Christianity, and thereby laid the foundation for the evangelization of the Indians. On this interpretation Aztec philosophy is nothing more than a Christian invention. But as M. Portilla showed in his work on Nahuatl philosophy, these terms predate the arrival of the Spanish missionaries and so cannot be used to prove Christian influence.

Nahuatl philosophy is a subject for future articles but, however you look at it the symbolism of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she represents the universal search for answers to the human dilemma, the mystery of death and the meaning of life.