Although many of my friends have seen this
picture, I have recently learned that many of them do not know the story. It is
one of my favorites. ENJOY!
Our Lady of
Guadalupe - Guadalupe, Mexico (1531)
Patroness of the Americas
Feast Day in the USA - December 12th
One day as Juan Diego, a poor Aztec convert, was walking to a chapel near
Tepayac Hill, he encountered a beautiful woman surrounded by a ball of light as
bright as the sun. Speaking in his native tongue, the beautiful lady identified
herself:
"My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know
who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and
maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord
of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may
experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and
in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart in this place. Here I will see
their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to
Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard."
Juan Diego immediately responded to Mary's request. He went
to the palace of the Bishop-elect Fray Juan de Zumarraga and requested to meet
immediately with the bishop. The bishop's servants, who were suspicious of the
rural peasant, kept him waiting for hours. The bishop-elect told Juan that he
would consider the request of the Lady and told him he could visit him again if
he so desired. Juan was disappointed by the bishop's response and felt himself
unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop. He returned to the hill
where he had first met Mary and found her there waiting for him. Imploring her
to send someone else, she responded:
"My little son, there are many I could send. But you
are the one I have chosen."
She then told him to return the next day to the bishop and
repeat the request. On Sunday, after again waiting for hours, Juan met with the
bishop who, on re-hearing his story, asked him to ask the Lady to provide a
sign as a proof of who she was. Juan dutifully returned to the hill and told
Mary, who was again waiting for him there, of the bishop's request.
"My little son, am I not your Mother? Do not fear. The
Bishop shall have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my
little son."
Unfortunately, Juan was not able to return to the hill the
next day. His uncle had become mortally ill and Juan stayed with him to care
for him. After two days, with his uncle near death, Juan left his side to find
a priest. Juan had to pass Tepayac Hill to get to the priest. As he was
passing, he found Mary waiting for him.
"Do not be distressed, my littlest son. Am I not here
with you who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your
uncle will not die at this time. There is no reason for you to engage a priest,
for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the top of
the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to
me."
While it was freezing on the hillside, Juan obeyed Mary's
instructions and went to the top of the hill where he found a full bloom of
Castilian roses. Removing his tilma, a poncho-like cape made of cactus fiber,
he cut the roses and carried them back to Mary. She rearranged the roses and
told him:
"My little son, this is the sign I am sending to the
Bishop. Tell him that with this sign I request his greatest efforts to complete
the church I desire in this place. Show these flowers to no one else but the
Bishop. You are my trusted ambassador. This time the Bishop will believe all
you tell him."
At the palace, Juan once again came before the bishop and
several of his advisers. He told the bishop his story and opened the tilma
letting the flowers fall out. But it wasn't the beautiful roses that caused the
bishop and his advisers to fall to their knees; for there, on the tilma, was a
picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary precisely as Juan had described her. The
next day, after showing the Tilma at the Cathedral, Juan took the bishop to the
spot where he first met Mary. He then returned to his village where he met his
uncle who was completely cured.
His uncle told him he had met a young woman, surrounded by a
soft light, who told him that she had just sent his nephew to Tenochtitlan with
a picture of herself. She told his uncle:
"Call me and call my image Santa Maria de
Guadalupe".
It's believed that the word Guadalupe was actually a Spanish
mis-translation of the local Aztec dialect. The word that Mary probably used
was Coatlallope which means "one who treads on snakes"! Within six
years of this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. The
tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer - she is pregnant with her Divine Son. Since
the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother of God, it
has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including smoke from
fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours and, in 1921, a
bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar under it. There was
also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when the bomb exploded, the cross
was twisted out of shape, the marble altar rail was heavily damaged and the
tilma was...untouched! Indeed, no one was injured in the Church despite the
damage that occurred to a large part of the altar structure.
In 1977, the tilma was examined
using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any
painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit
an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the
image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method
of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to
ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage
site in the Western Hemisphere.
reference: catholic.org
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