Guadalupe - The full story
Tepeyac · Mexico City · 1531
An image printed in a magey fabric that has lasted five centuries inexplicably, the most massive conversion in history and the Mother who chose to speak in the Nahua language to reach the hearts of the peoples.
The four apparitions (December 1531)
On the hill of Tepeyac, at dawn, Juan Diego heard the song of a bird and saw a Lady surrounded by light. She spoke to him in nahuatl - her own language - and asked him to go to Bishop Zumárraga to tell him that he wanted a church to be built there. Juan Diego went, but the bishop didn't believe him.
Disconsolated by the bishop's refusal, Juan Diego returned to the Tepeyac. The Lady encouraged him and asked him to return the next day to insist.
Again before the bishop. This time Zumárraga listened more carefully, but asked for a signal to prove that it was really the Virgin who sent the message. On returning to the Tepeyac, the Lady promised to give it to her the next day. That night Juan Diego could not come because his uncle Juan Bernardino was seriously ill.
Juan Diego took a shortcut to go find a priest for his dying uncle, but the Lady met him. He revealed that his uncle was already cured and asked him to go up to the hill to collect flowers. In the middle of winter - and in an arid and stony place - found fresh and fragrant roses of Castile, impossible at that station. He picked them up in his tylma and went down to the bishop. When it was opened, the roses fell to the ground and the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is now being venerated, appeared miraculously in the fabric.
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
With auhtlatoatzin (in Nahuatl, "speaking eagle") was born on 5 May 1474 in Cuauhtitlan and died on 30 May 1548 in Tepeyac, at the age of 74. He was 57 when the Virgin appeared to him. He was a widower, converted to Christianity, a simple country man. Pope John Paul II beatificó in the Basilica of Guadalupe on 6 May 1990, and canonize 31 July 2002 at the same place. It's the first indigenous American canonized by the Church.
The tylma: the mystery that lasts five centuries
Juan Diego's yam is woven with agave fibres (Agave popotule). Measure 168 × 103 cm. A tissue of this kind, under normal conditions, is deteriorating in 20- 30 years. The tima of Guadalupe has 493 years and is preserved in an extraordinary state, exposed to the smoke of candles for more than a century before being protected.
What science has observed
- No preparatory layers: Under infrared light, no brush strokes or corrections or printing layers are detected. The image seems to have "appeared" complete.
- Pigmentos sin identifier: The chemist Richard Kuhn (Nobel Prize) analyzed fibres in 1936 and concluded that the main pigments did not correspond to any plant, animal, mineral or synthetic dye known at the time.
- The 46 stars: Under infrared light, there appear exactly 46 stars positioned as the sky of the Valley of Mexico on the night of December 12, 1531.
- The eye of the Virgin: The engineer José Aste Tönsmann digitized the eyes of the image in 1979 and, expanded 2,500 times, identified in them the reflection of several human figures that he interprets as those present at the time of the miracle.
- The 1921 bombOn 14 November 1921, a government employee placed a dynamite bomb at the foot of the image. The explosion doubled the bronze candlesticks from the altar and was heard a mile away. The tylma suffered no damage.
The greatest conversion in history
Before 1531, the evangelization of New Spain advanced with great difficulty. The missionaries achieved few conversions. After the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the panorama changed radically:
- Between 1532 and 1538 were approximately baptized 9 million indigenous people - according to the Friar Motolinia. It is the largest mass conversion recorded in history in such a short time.
- The Virgin had appeared to an indigenous, speaking in her language, with mixed features, on a sacred pre-Hispanic hill. The message was clear: the God of the conquerors was also the God of the original peoples.
The basilicas of the Tepeyac
La Antigua Basílica (1695–1709)
Designed by the architect Pedro de Arrieta, it was opened to veneration on May 1, 1709. He was active for 250 years. In the mid-20th century the differential sinking of the ground made it dangerous, and it was decided to build a new temple.
La Nueva Basílica (1976)
Opened on 12 October 1976. Main architect: Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. Circular form, without inner columns, for all the faithful to see the image. Inner capacity: 10,000 people; with the open chapel of the second level, up to 50,000. It is the most modern Catholic temple in Mexico and one of the most visited in the world. The tylma of Juan Diego hangs under an armored glass on the main altar, accessible by a conveyor tape that allows you to see the image closely.
The role of Guadalupe in the history of Mexico
In Independence (1810)
On September 16, 1810, Michael Hidalgo took from the temple of Atotonilco the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe and raised it as the flag of the insurrection: "Long live Our Most Holy Mother of Guadalupe!". The "Virgen Morena" became a symbol of freedom for indigenous people and mestizos in front of Spanish rule.
In the Revolution (1910-1917)
Emiliano Zapata and the Zapatista Army carried the image of Guadalupe on their banner during the Mexican Revolution, making the Virgin a symbol of agrarian justice and peasant dignity.
The pilgrimages: December 12
El 12 December It's the great holiday. On the previous night, thousands of faithful remain in a candle singing "Las Mañanitas" to the Virgin. At dawn, the conchers - the heirs of pre-Hispanic traditions - dance with their penachos of feathers before the Basilica as an offering. Many pilgrims walk the last meters on their knees.
The oldest written source: the Nican Mopohua (1556)
The apparitions were narrated in nahuatl by the indigenous intellectual Antonio Valeriano about 1556, just eight years after the death of Juan Diego. The oldest preserved manuscript is kept in the New York Public Library. The title Nican Mopohua means "Here it is narrated" - the first two words of the text. It is the primary source of all Guadalupana devotion.