Decoding the divine image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been a favorite among Catholics for hundreds of years since she appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico in 1531. Today, Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most recognizable depictions of the Blessed Mother worldwide. Her presence has become well established in churches, homes, and even in some areas of popular culture. However, there is much more to the divine image of Mexico’s patron saint than meets the eye. Thursday, Dec. 12, is her feast day.
The account of Mary’s miraculous series of apparitions to Juan Diego was recorded in the Nican Mopohua, a document published in Nahuatl (the language of the Aztec people) in 1649. As the text recounts, Mary appeared to the devout peasant and introduced herself as the Mother of God. Speaking in his native tongue, she instructed him to visit the bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumárraga, and request that a church be built on Tepeyac Hill, where the natives could gather and pray for her intercession. When the bishop asked Juan Diego for a sign proving that the woman in the apparitions was indeed the Mother of God, she reappeared with her second set of instructions: he was to gather roses from the hilltop, bring them back to her so she could arrange them in his tilma, or cloak, and present them to the bishop. As it was the middle of winter, the flowers would be a sure sign that a miracle had taken place. Just as Our Lady had instructed, Juan Diego unfurled his tilma before the bishop, and the flowers fell to the floor, astounding the clergyman. Upon closer inspection, Zumárraga recognized the flowers as Castilian roses, which were not native to Mexico but rather to the bishop’s home city in Spain. Looking back at Juan Diego’s tilma, the men saw a miraculous sight: Our Lady of Guadalupe, imprinted in her heavenly radiance on the cloak that carried her roses.
Our Lady of Guadalupe’s image is as intricate as it is beautiful, not only bearing the Blessed Mother’s likeness but also telling a remarkable story. Through her depiction on Juan Diego’s tilma, Mary introduced herself to the Aztec people in a way that they understood deeply personally, and in doing so, she inspired the conversion of over eight million Mexicans to Catholicism in the years following her appearance. Looking at the tilma, one beholds the Virgin of Guadalupe standing in front of the sun with her feet atop a crescent moon.
This held major significance for the Aztecs, who had spent generations worshipping the spirits of the sun and moon, known to them as Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl, respectively. Their false deities now paled in comparison to the radiant woman. Her blue-green mantle – the color worn only by Aztec royalty – further emphasized that she came to them from heaven, and it was adorned with the stars precisely as they appeared in the sky on the night before her appearance to Juan Diego. But despite all her majesty, Mary was sure to convey that she was not the one to be worshipped, as she stood with her hands pressed together in prayer, her gaze lowered in humility, and a cross emblazoned on the brooch at her neck just as the Spanish missionaries wore. She instead came as the God-bearer, signified by the traditional Aztec maternity belt around her waist paired with the four-petaled flower – the Aztec symbol for the center of the universe – imprinted on her tunic directly over her womb. The woman’s message was clear to the native people: she came to bring them the one true God, the true center of the universe, incarnate in her womb as a precious child. Catholics now celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe as the Patroness of the unborn.
Perhaps more fascinating is the image’s defiance of scientific law. Numerous studies of Juan Diego’s tilma – which, having been woven out of plant fibers, should have deteriorated over 400 years ago and yet remains in perfect condition – have yielded staggering results that science cannot explain.
One study by Nobel Prize-winning doctor and chemist Richard Kuhn determined that the pigments in which the original image was rendered were unidentifiable as any earthly substance. Moreover, the complex and multicolored portrait appears to have been painted in a single brushstroke. The miraculous nature of the tilma reaches yet further, beyond appearance and into the biological. Biophysicist and NASA consultant Dr. Philip Callahan discovered that the constant temperature of Our Lady on Juan Diego’s tilma matches that of the living human body at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Gynecologist Carlos Fernandez de Castillo’s analysis revealed the unexplainable presence of two audible heartbeats from the fabric: one from Mary’s chest and another from her pregnant womb. These are just a few of the incredible findings that reinforce what is already known to the Catholic faithful: we serve a living God, and Our Blessed Mother, assumed in body and spirit, likewise lives with Him as the Queen of Heaven.
The Catholic Church commemorates the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12. As we celebrate her appearance to the Aztec people, may we remember that Mary comes as Mother to every one of us, echoing the words that she spoke to Juan Diego: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy?” Let us pray fervently for her intercession in our broken world, confident that miracles are far from impossible for our Blessed Mother.
Featured image: This painting by Antonio and Manuel de Arellano portrays Our Lady of Guadalupe surrounded by four scenes that illustrate her 1531 appearances to Juan Diego and the unveiling of her miraculous image on his cloak (Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City). (Photos by Archdiocese of Newark/Shania Mosquera)
