Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The roses of Castile on Juan Diego's tilma

Mexico City (Mexico) (1531)

The Guadalupe tradition recounts that on a Saturday in December 1531, an indigenous man named Juan Diego, walking at dawn toward the Christian faith, heard a gentle singing on Tepeyac Hill. Upon climbing it, he saw a Lady "clothed with the sun" who introduced herself as "the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God." With immense tenderness, she called him "Juanito, the least of my children" and asked him to beg Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to build a temple for her on that spot, so that she might show all her love, compassion, and help to those who sought her.

The bishop didn't believe him and asked for a sign. Meanwhile, Juan Diego's uncle, Juan Bernardino, fell gravely ill. On the morning of December 12, while going to find a priest, Juan Diego, out of shame, tried to avoid the Lady by taking another path. But she came to meet him and spoke the most beloved words in all of Mexican devotion.

She assured him that his uncle was already healed and instructed him to climb to the arid summit of the hill. There, Juan Diego found a rosebush covered in Castilian roses, fresh and fragrant despite the cold of the high plateau. The Virgin herself arranged them in his tilma made of maguey fiber and ordered him not to show them to anyone until he reached the bishop.

When she finally opened her cloak and let the flowers fall, those present knelt: on the humble tilma, the image of the Virgin, now venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe, had been imprinted. Upon returning home, Juan Diego found his uncle completely recovered, just as she had promised, and he learned that she had also appeared to him, revealing the name by which she wished to be invoked: Our Lady of Guadalupe.