Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe — The Complete Dossier

Introduction: the heart of America

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, situated at the foot of Tepeyac hill in the north of Mexico City, is one of the world’s principal centres of Catholic pilgrimage and welcomes millions of faithful. It is the spiritual heart of Mexico and of the whole of Latin America, and its importance transcends the religious sphere to become a symbol of mestizo identity and of the unity of the American continent.

The history of the shrine goes back to December 1531, barely a decade after the conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, when the Virgin Mary appeared on four occasions to a humble Chichimeca Indian named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on Tepeyac hill. The image that was miraculously imprinted on his ayate tilma —a coarse cloth woven from maguey fibres— is the origin of the deepest and most widespread devotion of the American continent and the most important religious phenomenon in the history of the Church in America.

The architectural complex of the shrine comprises the Old Basilica (built between 1695 and 1709), the New Basilica (inaugurated in 1976), Tepeyac Hill, the Atrium of the Americas and various museums and chapels. The New Basilica, a masterpiece of modern Mexican architecture, is a circular building 100 metres in diameter with capacity for 10,000 people inside and up to 50,000 in the atrium.

The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe (1531)

Historical context

In 1531, barely ten years after the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan to Hernán Cortés (1521), New Spain was living through a moment of profound transformation. The indigenous population, militarily defeated and subjected to the new colonial order, was passing through an unprecedented demographic and spiritual crisis. The Franciscan missionaries, who had arrived in 1524, laboured tirelessly at the evangelisation of the native peoples, but progress was slow and they met with a silent resistance rooted in the deep hold of the old beliefs.

Fray Juan de Zumárraga, cousin of the inquisitor general and protégé of the Emperor Charles V, had been appointed first Bishop of Mexico in 1528. He was a man of deep faith, firm in character yet also of great sensitivity towards the indigenous people, whom he defended before the crown on repeated occasions.

It was in this context of encounter and collision between two worlds that the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe took place, apparitions that would change the spiritual history of America for ever.

First apparition: Saturday 9 December 1531

According to the account of the Nican Mopohua —the text in the Nahuatl language which records the testimony of the apparitions, written by the learned Indian Antonio Valeriano around 1556—, in the early morning of Saturday 9 December 1531, an Indian named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a native of Cuauhtitlan, was walking towards Tlatelolco to attend his catechism lessons. As he passed by Tepeyac hill, he heard the song of birds and a voice calling him tenderly: «Juanito, Juan Dieguito».

He climbed to the summit of the hill and there he found a Lady of extraordinary beauty, surrounded by a resplendent light «like the arrows of the sun». Her garments shone like the sun, and the stones of the hill seemed like emeralds and precious jewels. The Lady, «the perfect ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the true God», spoke to him with these words:

The Virgin asked Juan Diego to go before Bishop Fray Juan de Zumárraga to request the building of a temple on Tepeyac, where she might show her love and her mercy to all the inhabitants of this land.

The audience with the bishop

Juan Diego obeyed and made his way to the episcopal palace in Mexico City. After waiting a long time, he was at last received by Bishop Zumárraga, to whom he related the Virgin’s message. The bishop, prudently, did not give immediate credence to his words. He told him to return on another occasion, as he wished for time to reflect.

Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac that same day and, finding the Virgin there, told her sadly that perhaps it would be better to send someone more important, «a principal, a noble, a person of standing». But the Virgin answered him: «I earnestly beg you, my son, the smallest of all, to go once more to see the bishop and to tell him that it is I, the perfect ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, who send you».

Second apparition: Sunday 10 December

The following day, Sunday, Juan Diego presented himself once more before the bishop after hearing Mass. This time, Zumárraga questioned him in greater detail and finally asked him for a sign, a proof that it was truly the Queen of Heaven who was sending him.

Third apparition: Monday 11 December

Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac and told the Virgin of the bishop’s request. She answered him: «Very well, my son, climb to the summit of the hill, and there, where you saw me for the first time, you will find flowers. Cut them and take them to the bishop as a sign». Juan Diego climbed the hill, and although it was December —winter in the northern hemisphere, a season when no plant flowers in the barrenness of Tepeyac— he found there a garden of most beautiful Castilian roses covered in dew. He cut them and gathered them into the fold of his tilma.

The miracle of the tilma: Tuesday 12 December 1531

Juan Diego made his way to the bishop’s house. He waited a long while; the servants, curious, tried to see what he was carrying in his tilma, but when they peered in they saw only beautiful flowers. At last, he was received by Zumárraga. Juan Diego opened out his tilma and let the roses fall to the floor, and at that moment, upon the coarse ayate of maguey fibres, there appeared miraculously the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, just as she is venerated today.

The bishop and all those present fell to their knees, filled with wonder and tears. Immediately, Zumárraga acknowledged the miracle and gave orders for the requested temple to be built on Tepeyac. The following day, Juan Diego led the bishop and his retinue to the place of the apparitions.

The fourth apparition and the healing of Juan Bernardino

That same Tuesday 12 December, the Virgin also appeared to Juan Bernardino, Juan Diego’s uncle, who was gravely ill. She healed him miraculously and revealed her name to him: «The Perfect Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe». Juan Bernardino was brought before the bishop, where he confirmed the apparition and the healing.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Description of the tilma

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is imprinted on an ayate of maguey fibres (cacti of the species Agave salmiana), woven in two pieces joined by a central seam. It measures approximately 1.70 metres in height by 1.05 metres in width. The Virgin appears as a young woman of dark complexion, standing upon a black moon, clothed in a rose-coloured tunic and a blue-green mantle covered with golden stars. Her hands are joined in an attitude of prayer. She is surrounded by a radiance of golden rays, and at her feet an angel with coloured wings holds her up.

Symbolism of the image

The image is laden with symbolism that the Nahua Indians were able to understand at once:

Her position standing upon the moon: in Nahuatl cosmology, the moon (Meztli) represented the deities of night and darkness. The Virgin appears standing upon it, showing that she is above the old gods.

The sun behind her: the rays of the sun that surround her present her as «the woman clothed with the sun» of the Apocalypse, but they also identify her with the supreme Nahuatl god, Ometeotl.

The blue-green mantle: a colour reserved for Mexica royalty, the turquoise-blue shade (xiuhtl) was the colour of the god of fire and of time.

The 46 stars on the mantle: some modern authors associate them with constellations visible over Mexico in 1531. This is a debated modern interpretation, not an officially established scientific or ecclesial conclusion.

The black sash above the womb: it indicates pregnancy, a sign that the Virgin is with child, announcing the coming of her Son. For the Nahuas, the sash (cueitl) was a symbol of motherhood.

The four-petalled brooch (the nahui ollin flower): the jewel she wears at her neck is the four-petalled flower, the Nahuatl symbol of the sun, of movement and of the presence of the true God.

Her hands joined in prayer: for the indigenous people, this posture indicated the attitude of the warrior who lays down his arms and places himself in the hands of God.

Scientific studies on the tilma

Juan Diego’s tilma has been the subject of numerous scientific studies, which have revealed phenomena that science has been unable to explain:

The preservation of the fabric: maguey fibres ordinarily degrade within 20 or 30 years. Yet the tilma has been preserved for almost 500 years without any conservation treatment whatsoever. Infrared analyses carried out in 1979 by the American scientists Philip Callahan and Jody Smith revealed that the fabric had not been treated with any kind of sizing or preservative.

The absence of painting techniques: the same studies demonstrated that there are no traces of brushstrokes, nor preliminary sketches, nor pigments of any known vegetable, animal or mineral origin. The Nobel laureate in Chemistry Richard Kuhn analysed the pigments and concluded that they belonged to no known type of paint.

The phenomenon of the eyes: the Peruvian researcher José Aste Tonsmann, a graduate in Environmental Systems Engineering from Cornell University, studied the eyes of the image for more than twenty years. He enlarged the irises to 2.500 times their actual size and discovered reflected in them the figures of 13 people, exactly the same scene that would have been imprinted on the eyes of anyone who witnessed the moment when Juan Diego unfurled the tilma before the bishop. The figures appear in both eyes, with the optical distortions proper to the human cornea, and a Peruvian ophthalmologist, Doctor Rafael Estartus, confirmed that the human eye can register only three images, not thirteen.

The constant temperature of the tilma: measurements taken with thermographic cameras revealed that the tilma maintains a constant temperature of 36,6 degrees centigrade, the same as that of the living human body, while the surrounding fabric remains at ambient temperature.

Astronomical interpretation: Fernando Ojeda Llanes has argued for a correspondence between the mantle’s stars and the sky over the Valley of Mexico in 1531. It should be presented as his interpretative proposal rather than a generally accepted demonstration.

History of the devotion and of the shrine

The first hermitage (1531-1556)

Immediately after the miracle, Bishop Zumárraga ordered the building of a small adobe hermitage on the spot indicated by the Virgin. The image on the tilma was placed there, and popular devotion began to grow in an extraordinary way. Thousands of indigenous people —perhaps millions in the decades that followed— came to Tepeyac, and numerous conversions to Christianity took place there.

Controversy soon arose: the Franciscan friars, who had been the first evangelisers, viewed the cult at Tepeyac with suspicion, fearing that the indigenous people were confusing the Virgin with the goddess Tonantzin («our little mother»), who had been worshipped in the same place before the arrival of the Spaniards. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, the great chronicler of Nahuatl culture, noted this continuity: «…namely, that the gathering of the Indians at this hermitage has come to settle there, as before, which is of no great importance, and on this pretext they still resort to the same place».

Nevertheless, the devotion grew unceasingly. In 1556, Archbishop Alonso de Montúfar, Zumárraga’s successor, officially recognised the cult and promoted the construction of a larger church.

The Temple of Tepeyac and the first enlargements

In 1556 a new and larger hermitage was built. In 1622 a still larger church was erected. But the influx of pilgrims never ceased to grow, and in 1695, under the patronage of Archbishop Francisco de Aguiar y Seijas, the first stone was laid of what was to become the great Basilica of Guadalupe, the building we know today as the Old Basilica.

The Old Basilica (1695-1709)

The Old Basilica of Guadalupe was designed by the New Spanish architect Pedro de Arrieta, who was also responsible for the Palace of the Inquisition and the Church of Santo Domingo in Mexico City. It is a building in the New Spanish Baroque style, with a façade of pink cantera stone and two bell towers. It was consecrated on 1 May 1709 and served as the home of the image for 267 years.

Inside, on a Latin-cross plan with a single nave and side chapels, the most striking feature is the camarín of the Virgin: an octagonal chapel situated behind the high altar, richly decorated with gilded stucco and oil paintings. At the centre of the high altar the original image of the Virgin was venerated, protected by a frame of wrought silver.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Basilica underwent numerous enlargements and remodellings. In 1895, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the pontifical coronation of the image took place in a solemn ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Mexico.

The structural crisis of the Old Basilica

By the mid-twentieth century, the Old Basilica was suffering from serious structural problems owing to the differential subsidence of the ground, characteristic of the lacustrine subsoil of Mexico City. The building had tilted dangerously and was threatening to collapse. Moreover, its maximum capacity of 2.000 to 3.000 people was wholly insufficient to accommodate the millions of pilgrims who came each year.

In 1974 the decision was taken to build a new church. The image was moved provisionally to an adjoining building while the works were completed.

The New Basilica of Guadalupe (1974-1976)

The architectural project

The New Basilica of Guadalupe was designed by a team of architects headed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (architect of the Azteca Stadium and of the National Museum of Anthropology) and José Luis Benlliure, together with Alejandro Schoenhofer, Fray Gabriel Chávez de la Mora and Javier García Lascuráin.

The project was based on clear premises: it was to be a building of modern architecture that would not overshadow the traditional Old Basilica; it was to offer a perfect view of the image from any point; and it was to have the capacity to accommodate thousands of the faithful. A circular plan was chosen, symbolising both the mantle of the Virgin sheltering her children and the tent of the Ark of the Covenant, while also evoking the ancient pre-Hispanic circular temples dedicated to Quetzalcoatl.

Construction data

Construction began in 1974 and was completed in just two years. The building was erected to the west of the Atrium of the Americas, beside the Old Basilica, on a site of 10.000 square metres.

To resolve the problem of subsidence —the same problem that had afflicted the Old Basilica— the engineers designed a foundation resting on 344 control piles driven to a depth of 40 metres, down to the resistant layers of the subsoil. Some 50.000 tonnes of earth were excavated and removed to compensate for part of the weight of the building, estimated at 100.000 tonnes.

Architecture and design

The New Basilica is a building of circular plan, 100 metres in diameter, covered by a great dome supported by a single central mast 42 metres high, from which 32 steel arches spring and fan out like the folds of a mantle. The structure, of reinforced concrete, is clad with sheets of copper which, as they have oxidised, have taken on the characteristic green colour by which the building is known.

The interior, free of supports (self-supporting), allows the image of the Virgin to be visible from any point. The image stands behind the high altar, on a wall finished in the same manner as the ceiling, beneath a great wooden cross. An underground moving walkway, installed beneath the altar, allows pilgrims to contemplate the image face to face without halting the procession, thus avoiding crowding.

The high altar, of marble, is raised upon several levels to give prominence to this part of the plan. The sanctuary is flanked by two chapels: the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the Chapel of Saint Joseph. In the basement lie the crypts, with room for 15.000 niches and 10 funerary chapels.

Inauguration and consecration

On 12 October 1976, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was carried in solemn procession from the Old Basilica to the New Basilica. The church was consecrated that same day, although the official dedication by Pope Paul VI took place on 11 October 1976, the eve of the translation.

The Old Basilica, structurally restored, was reopened for worship and today serves as an auxiliary church and museum, housing numerous works of sacred art from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

The shrine precinct

The complex of the Shrine of Guadalupe comprises, in addition to the two basilicas, the following spaces:

The Hill of Tepeyac: the site of the apparitions, today a natural park with a chapel on the summit commemorating each of the apparitions. It is reached by a stairway that ascends from the atrium.

The Atrium of the Americas: a great square of 45,000 square metres connecting the Old and the New Basilica, with standing room for 40,000 people. The great open-air celebrations are held there, especially the vigil of 12 December.

The Chapel of the Pocito: an eighteenth-century Baroque chapel built over the well of miraculous waters which, according to tradition, sprang up on the spot where the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego.

The Museum of the Basilica of Guadalupe: it houses an important collection of viceregal art, votive offerings, liturgical objects and historical documents connected with the Guadalupan devotion.

The Bell Tower of the New Basilica: a modern tower 50 metres high, with a carillon of 50 bells.

The Plaza Mariana: a place of gathering and rest for pilgrims, with fountains, green areas and services.

Chronology of Guadalupe

• 9-12 December 1531: Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac. Miracle of the tilma.
• 1531-1532: Construction of the first hermitage on Tepeyac.
• 1556: Composition of the Nican Mopohua by Antonio Valeriano. Official recognition of the devotion by Archbishop Montúfar.
• 1622: Construction of a larger church on Tepeyac.
• 1695-1709: Construction of the Old Basilica (architect Pedro de Arrieta).
• 1709: Consecration of the Old Basilica.
• 1754: Pope Benedict XIV declares Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of New Spain.
• 1895: Pontifical coronation of the image.
• 1910: Pope Saint Pius X proclaims Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of Latin America.
• 1921: Bomb attack in the Basilica: a bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers explodes beside the image, yet causes it no harm.
• 1929: First discovery of human figures in the eyes of the Virgin.
• 1945: Pius XII proclaims her «Empress of the Americas».
• 1974-1976: Construction of the New Basilica.
• 12 October 1976: Transfer of the image to the New Basilica and consecration of the church.
• 1979: First visit of Pope John Paul II to the shrine.
• 1990: Beatification of Juan Diego by Pope John Paul II.
• 1999: Ecclesia in America records the invocation of Guadalupe as “Patroness of all America” and extends her liturgical feast across the continent.
• 2002: Canonisation of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Guadalupe.
• 2012: Publication of the book «Las constelaciones en la imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe» by Dr Fernando Ojeda Llanes.
• 2021: Celebration of the 490th anniversary of the apparitions.
• 2031: The celebration of the fifth centenary of the apparitions is awaited.

Official sources: Basilica of Guadalupe: historical documents; Ecclesia in America.

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Guadalupan devotion today

Our Lady of Guadalupe is, without doubt, the most important religious and cultural phenomenon in the Americas. Her shrine on Tepeyac welcomes millions of pilgrims each year, with an especially intense concentration around 12 December. On those days the pilgrimage is constant: from every part of the country, the faithful travel long distances on foot, by bicycle or by coach, sometimes covering hundreds of kilometres, to reach Tepeyac.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is present in every corner of Mexico: in homes, churches, shops, vehicles and public offices. Her figure has transcended the religious sphere to become a national symbol: the Guadalupan banner led the struggle for Mexican independence (1810-1821), and today it is an emblem of identity for Mexicans both within and beyond the country.

The Popes have shown a special devotion to Guadalupe: John Paul II visited her on four occasions (1979, 1990, 1999, 2002), Benedict XVI in 2012, and Francis in 2016. In 1999, John Paul II proclaimed 12 December a liturgical feast day throughout the American continent.

The message of Guadalupe — the choice of a humble indigenous man as her messenger, the dark countenance of the Virgin, the words of consolation to the vanquished, the promise of protection — continues to resound with power five centuries later, as a testimony to Mary’s love for all her children in the Americas.