domenica 27 gennaio 2013
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sabato 26 gennaio 2013
L'IMMAGINE DI GUADALUPE
L'IMMAGINE DI GUADALUPE
Nel lontano 1531, un indio saliva sulle colline del Tepeyac, nei dintorni di Città del Messico, per assistere ad una lezione di catechismo. Il suo nome era Juan Diego: era un neobattezzato che impressionava tutti per il fervore con cui aveva abbracciato la religione cattolica.
Giunto in cima alla montagna, egli udì risuonare dei canti e, allo stesso tempo, una voce femminile che lo chiamava: - Juan, Juan Dieguito!
Sorpreso, l'indio si diresse verso il luogo da dove proveniva la voce e poté contemplare qualcosa di veramente meraviglioso! Una Signora di bellezza sovrannaturale stava di fronte a lui. La sua veste irradiava una luce intensa e tutto intorno a lei era trasformato.
- Juan Diego
- Juan Diego
si chinò davanti a lei e udì, incantato, le seguenti parole: - Juanito, il più umile dei miei figli [...]. Io, la Sempre Vergine Maria, Madre del Dio Vivo e del Creatore, desidero che sia costruito qui, subito, un tempio. In questo modo potrò mostrare tutto il mio amore, compassione, soccorso e protezione agli uomini. Io sono la tua pietosa Madre, tua e di tutti gli abitanti di questa terra e di tutti coloro che Mi amano, invocano e confidano in Me. Ascolto tutti i loro lamenti e curo tutte le loro miserie, afflizioni e dolori.
Dopo aver detto questo, la Madonna ordinò a Juan Diego di andare al palazzo del Vescovo di Città del Messico e di riferirgli il suo desiderio: che in quel luogo si costruisse un tempio dedicato a Lei. Promise anche che sarebbe stata molto riconoscente per questo e che lo avrebbe ricompensato largamente.
Il nostro buon indio obbedì. Il Vescovo, però, non credette alle sue parole e volle che il veggente portasse un segno dalla Madre di Dio.
Juan Diego tornò molto triste e umilmente riferì alla Vergine l'accaduto. La Madonna lo incoraggiò e gli chiese di salire in cima alla collina e di cogliere i fiori che avesse trovato.
Giunto in cima, egli rimase incantato dalla varietà dei fiori sbocciati in pieno inverno su quel suolo arido. Li colse e li portò alla bella Signora. Ella lo inviò nuovamente dal vescovo, a presentargli quei fiori come prova della sua apparizione.
L'indio, pieno di fede, ripose i fiori nel suo mantello - una specie di poncho rustico usato dai contadini aztechi - e si incamminò in direzione del palazzo episcopale.
Quando vi giunse, fu umiliato dai funzionari del vescovo: - Tu, ancora? Non sai che il Signor Vescovo è un uomo molto occupato?!
E ancora: - Questa storia della Vergine che ti appare, è un'invenzione tua, vero? Che ci vuoi guadagnare con questo?
- Non sto inventando nulla, no! - assicurava l'indio - È tutto vero! La Signora, mia madre, mi ha mandato qui.
- Che cosa porti nascosto lì?
- Sono i fiori che ho colto in cima al Tepeyac, disse Juan Diego.
- Guardate! Sono fiori esotici!
- Ma che bei fiori! Non ne ho mai visti di così tanto belli!
I funzionari erano incantati, ma l'indio ebbe da aspettare ancora molte ore, fino a che, finalmente, i funzionari riferirono al vescovo il caso dei fiori, e questi, allora, decise di riceverlo. Quando arrivò al suo cospetto, Diego aprì il suo mantello e i fiori caddero. Con sorpresa e meraviglia di tutti, su quella rustica veste appariva una splendida immagine della Madonna.
Davanti ad un simile segno, il vescovo si mise in ginocchio, emozionato. Adesso, credeva! Quando si alzò era pronto a soddisfare la richiesta della Vergine Santa.
Il vescovo volle che quell'immagine della Madonna fosse venerata da tutti i fedeli. Innanzitutto, egli la espose nella cappella del Palazzo e poi nella chiesa principale della città. Lì rimase fino alla fine della costruzione del tempio sul Tepeyac, nel luogo indicato da Juan Diego.
La Madonna di Guadalupe, come cominciò ad esser chiamata, fu proclamata patrona dell'America Latina da Papa San Pio X, nel 1910. La sua festa è commemorata il giorno 12 Dicembre.
Al di là della storia e del miracolo, l'immagine della Vergine di Guadalupe porta con sé aspetti affascinanti, che ancor oggi incuriosiscono scienziati del mondo intero.
Il mantello dell'indio Juan Diego è tessuto con una fibra grossolana destinata a disfarsi nel tempo: normalmente la sua durata è di circa 20 anni. Ormai di anni ne sono passati quasi 500 ed esso si conserva perfetto, come nel giorno del miracolo.
Per 100 anni l'immagine è rimasta esposta nella chiesa ed è stata portata in numerose processioni senza alcuna protezione. Baci e contatti da parte dei fedeli, umidità e polvere: nulla ha compromesso il tessuto, né l'immagine.
Analizzando le proprietà della pittura, il Dott. Richard Kuhn, Premio Nobel per la Chimica nel 1938, non riuscì a scoprire se la tinta usata fosse di origine vegetale, animale o minerale.
Un test a raggi infrarossi, effettuato da tecnici della NASA nel 1979, concluse che il disegno fu realizzato senza abbozzo preliminare.
Tuttavia, la più affascinante scoperta degli studiosi dell'immagine, avvenne durante l'analisi degli occhi della Santissima Vergine.
Dopo vari ingrandimenti della fotografia, con stupore si osservò in entrambi gli occhi la figura di un uomo con la barba.
Più tardi, utilizzando metodi computerizzati ad alta tecnologia, si scoprì un dettaglio ancora più impressionante: tutti i personaggi presenti nella sala, al momento della consegna dei fiori, incluso lo stesso Juan Diego, sono "fotografati" negli occhi dell'immagine.
Ancora, studi compiuti da numerosi oftalmologi hanno rivelato che gli occhi hanno la brillantezza e la luminosità proprie soltanto di una persona viva!
Questo affascinante insieme di scoperte - per il quale la scienza non ha una spiegazione - potrebbe riassumersi in una sola parola: miracolo. Uno dei più stupendi miracoli della Madonna, un vero dono della Madre di Dio ai suoi amati figli d'America, e... del mondo intero.
Fac, Domina,
ut vivamus in
gratia Spiritus Sancti,
et perduc animas nostras ad sanctum finem.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
Am I not here, who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the fountain of your joy?
The appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to
the Aztec Indian Juan Diego in December of 1531 generated the conversion of
Mexico, Central and South America to Catholicism. Indeed, the Blessed Virgin
Mary entered the very lifestream of Central America and became an inextricable
part of Mexican life and a central figure to the history of Mexico itself. The
three most important religious celebrations in Central and South America are
Christmas, Easter, and December 12, the feast-day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her
appearance in the center of the American continents has contributed to the
Virgin of Guadalupe being given the title "Mother of the Americas."
It is important to understand the historical background and setting at the time
of the apparition to fully appreciate the impact of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The Aztecs
The Aztecs ruled most
of Central America in 1500, and their Empire known as Mesoamerica extended from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and included the lands of Mexico,
Guatamala, Belize, and portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Montezuma (or
Moctezuma) the Younger, considered the earthly representative of the sun god
Huitzilopochtli, became King of the Aztecs in 1503, and ruled from the capital
Tenochtitlan and its sister-city Tlatelolco, both situated on an island in Lake
Texcoco, the site of modern Mexico City. The inhabitants of the island were
called the Mexica.
Montezuma demanded heavy tribute from the surrounding
Indian tribes, and was poised to conquer the few remaining regions of the dying
Mayan civilization.
The city of Tenochtitlan was the center of religious
worship for the Aztecs. Since the Mexica believed that the gods required human
blood to subsist, the priests sacrificed thousands of living humans a year,
generally captured Indians from surrounding tribes, in order to appease the
frightful deities.
Two gods important to understanding the events of
history were Quetzalcoatl, the stone serpent, and Tonantzin, the mother god.
Quetzalcoatl was the god who founded the Aztec nation, but left when human
sacrifice began, as he was opposed to the terrible ritual; but he vowed to
return one day to reclaim his throne and redeem the Aztecs in the year 1-Reed,
which occurred every 52 years in the Aztec time cycle. Tonantzin was depicted as
a terrifying figure, with her head comprised of snakes and her garment a mass of
writhing serpents; her eyes projected fathomless grief. Tonantzin was worshipped
at a stone temple in Tepeyac, about five miles from the capital Tenochtitlan.
Montezuma's sister, Princess Papantzin, lapsed in a coma in 1509. Upon
her recovery, she related a dream that profoundly influenced the superstitious
King. In her dream a luminous being with a black cross on his forehead led her
to a shore with large ships that would come to their shores to conquer the
Aztecs and bring them the true God. It was only ten years later, in the year
1-Reed, a year when Quetzalcoatl could return, that the Conquistadors of Spain
arrived on the shores of Mexico.
Hernando Cortez and the
Conquistadors
The European discovery of America by Christopher
Columbus in 1492 led to the exploration and colonization of the entire Caribbean
by the Spaniards. The Conquistadors, much like the Crusaders, were variably in
search of fortune, personal glory, and God, and often all three.
The
Spaniard Hernando Cortes landed on the Gulf shore of Mexico on Good Friday,
April 22, 1519. According to one of his men, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who
recorded the events of the expedition, Cortes arrived with 508 soldiers on
eleven ships, 100 sailors, 16 horses, a few cannons, crossbows and other pieces
of artillery. They named the landing site Veracruz, "The True Cross." Their
Chaplain, Father Bartolome de Olmedo, performed Mass on Easter Sunday. Cortes
worked alongside his men to build a fort and left a contingent to protect the
new settlement. He then sent one ship back to Spain with a letter that detailed
their discovery for King Charles V. In an historic move to strengthen their
resolve to conquer the land, Cortes burned his last ten ships in the harbor,
cutting off any avenue of retreat.
Three reasons have been given for the
conquest of Mexico by this small but formidable force. The arrival of the
Spanish conquistadors with their metal breastplates, snorting horses, loud
smoking guns, and vicious dogs proved a frightening spectacle to the Indians.
Cortes, through the Indian interpreter Dona Marina, cleverly won over outlying
Indian tribes, such as the Tlaxcalans, who resented the heavy tribute demanded
by the Aztecs. In addition, the Aztecs and others had no immunity to smallpox
brought to American shores by the Europeans, and were decimated in a smallpox
epidemic that began in 1520.
The expedition first went up the coast to Cempoala, where
the heavily taxed tribe pledged their allegiance to Cortes. They continued
through Jalapa, and headed towards Tlaxcala. They continued to find evidence of
human sacrifice everywhere they went. This only strengthened their determination
to stop the diabolic practice. At first the Tlaxcalans resisted the Spaniards.
Cortes fought right alongside his men and forever earned their respect. Unable
to defeat the Spaniards, the fierce Tlaxcalans finally joined forces with
Cortes, and ultimately proved to be most valuable allies.
On the way to
Tenochtitlan, Montezuma planned a trap in Cholula for Cortez, but the Spaniards
and the Tlaxcalans overwhelmed the Chululan tribe, allies of the Mexica, and
left 3000 dead. Montezuma recalled the dream of his sister when he learned that
a black cross adorned the helmets of the Spaniards. Because he believed that he
was the returning god Quetzalcoatl, Montezuma refused to attack Cortes, and
actually welcomed him on his arrival into Tenochtitlan 8 November 1519, and
housed the Spaniards in the palace of Montezuma's father.
The Spaniards
were appalled at the horrible spectacle of human sacrifice, and Cortez asked
Montezuma to stop. But sacrifice of adults and even children continued, and the
Spaniards were awakened each morning by the screams of sacrificial victims.
Cortez boldly placed Montezuma under house arrest one week after his arrival,
and confined him to his palace.
Montezuma presented many gifts of gold,
silver, and jewels to Cortez, but would not stop the demonic rituals. Finally,
Cortes climbed the stairs of the main temple, had the priests remove the Aztec
gods, and placed a Cross and image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father Olmedo
said Holy Mass.
The Aztec rituals stopped for three months.
War was
about to begin.
Soon afterwards, Cortes had to leave the city for
political reasons, and placed Pedro de Alvarado in charge of Tenochtitlan.
During the festival of the sun god Huitzilopochtli in the spring of 1520,
Alvarado decided to surround the Aztecs during their ritual ceremony in the
temples, and slaughtered the unarmed celebrants. Outraged at this violation, the
Mexica rose up in arms. Montezuma's brother Cuitlahuac assumed leadership and
fiercely attacked the Spaniards. Montezuma died in the battle. Cortes returned
to Tenochtitlan to find the city in open warfare. The Spaniards and Tlaxcalans
were soundly defeated and driven from the city on the Night of Sorrow, June 30,
1520.
However, Cortes returned to Tenochtitlan in May of 1521 with a
massive army of native Indians, mostly Tlaxcalans. They were surprised to find
half the population had died of a smallpox epidemic, including King Cuitlahuac.
The new leader Cuauhtemoc fought Cortes for 93 days, but had to surrender the
city on August 13, 1521. The once glorious city of Tenochtitlan was destroyed,
and with it, the Aztec practice of human sacrifice. The conquest of Mesoamerica
was complete.
The Early Church
in Mexico
Cortes' first action as conqueror was to place the region
under the Spanish crown and demolish the temples of sacrifice and build Catholic
churches in their place, such as the Church Santiago de Tlatelolco on the site
of the Temple of the sun god in present-day Mexico City.
Cortez did call
for missionaries to convert the native Indians, and shortly after the Conquest,
the Franciscan Peter Ghent from Belgium arrived in New Spain in August of 1523.
He become known as Fray Pedro de Gante, and adopted the ways of the Indians and
lived a life of poverty among the natives. He learned Nahuatl, the native Aztec
language, and soon appreciated that communication with the natives was through
images, music, and poetry. He first began to educate the young, and the natives
soon learned to trust him and listen to the Christian message.
In May of
1524, twelve Franciscan missionaries arrived, including Father Toribio Paredes
de Benevente, who affectionally became known as Motolinia or "poor one" by the
natives for his self-sacrificing ways. Many of the others attempted conversion
by formal catechetical methods through translators. But they found the natives
highly resistant to Christianity, the religion of the Conquistadors, who had
killed thousands of Indians, raped their women, and destroyed Tenochtitlan.
The Dominicans, including Father Bartolome de las Casas of the West
Indies, the first priest ordained in the New World, the Augustinians, and the
Jesuits arrived considerably later.
In 1528 Charles V of Spain sent a
group of five administrators known as the First Audience to govern Mexico. The
First Audience was headed by Don Nune de Guzman, who quickly proved cruel and
ruthless in his treatment of the native population. He forced the native
population either to abandon their villages or be reduced to slavery, branded
them on the faces, and sold them in exchange for cattle.
To offset the
First Audience, Charles V appointed Fray Juan Zumarraga as the first Bishop of
Mexico City and Protector of the Indians in December of 1528. He accomplished
much in his 25 years as Bishop, which included the establishment of the first
grammar school, library, printing press, and the first college, Colegio de la
Santa Cruz at Tlatelolco. However, he spent much of his first year in Mexico
objecting to the ruthless treatment of the Indians by de Guzman, who by then had
sold 15,000 Indians into slavery. The First Audience applied strict censorship,
and forbade both Indians and Spaniards from bringing complaints to the Bishop.
The Bishop countered with stern sermons against their use of military force,
torture, and the imprisonment of Indians.
Finally, in 1529, some Indians
managed to smuggle a protest to Bishop Zumarraga concerning the heavy taxes and
slave conditions in nearby Puebla. Bishop Zumarraga managed to send a message
hidden in a crucifix back to Spain, and de Guzman was recalled. A Second
Audience was appointed which proved judicial to the Indians, but did not arrive
in Mexico until 1531.
However, the Conquistadors and the First Audience
had done grave damage to their relationship with the native population. The
Indians were fed up with Spanish occupation, and resentment had reached a flash
point. Isolated outbreaks of fights with the Spaniards had become inevitable,
and Bishop Zumarraga feared a general insurrection. Such was the setting when
the event of Tepeyac took place.
The following account of the five apparitions in three days is based on the
oldest written record of the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Nican
Mopohua, written in Náhuatl about 1540 by Don Antonio Valeriano, one of the
first Aztec Indians educated by the Franciscans at the Bishop's Colegio de la
Santa Cruz. An illustration of the apparition event with the signature of Don
Antonio Valeriano and the date 1548 was recently uncovered in a private
collection in 1995, now referred to as the Codex 1548. The Codex 1548 has been
scientifically determined to be genuine, and substantiates the historical basis
of the apparition of Guadalupe.
The Jesuit Father Miguel Sanchez
published the first Spanish work on Guadalupe, Imagen de la Virgen Maria Madre
de Dios de Guadalupe in 1648. Brother Luis Lasso de la Vega published in Náhuatl
the Nican Mopohua and other documents in a collection known as Huey
Tlamahuezoltica in 1649. The theologian Luis Becerra Tanco published his work on
the tradition of Guadalupe in 1675. Finally, the Jesuit professor of theology
Francisco de Florencia produced his account of the apparition in 1688. These
four writers have been important in the preservation of the tradition of Our
Lady of Guadalupe.
The tradition of the event is of prime importance.
The precipitous conversion of over 8 million Aztec Indians to Catholicism in
seven years is highly indicative of the miracle of Guadalupe. It has been
pointed out that great historical movements do not result from
non-events.
The Miracle of
Tepeyac
The Aztec Indian Cuauhtlatoatzin, which means "the one who
speaks like an eagle," was born in 1474. He married a girl named Malitzin, and
they lived with an uncle near Lake Texcoco. The three were among the few to be
baptized in the early days, most likely by Father Toribio in 1525, and given the
names Juan Diego and Maria Lucia, and the uncle Juan Bernardino. Maria Lucia was
childless, and died a premature death in 1529.
Juan Diego
Cuauhtlatoatzin was a widower at age 55, and turned his life to God. It was his
custom to attend Mass and catechism lessons at the Church in Tlatelolco. At
daybreak, on Saturday, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego began his journey to Church.
As he passed a hill named Tepeyac, on which once stood a temple to the Aztec
mother god Tonantzin, he heard songbirds burst into harmony. Music and songbirds
presaged something divine for the Aztec. The music stopped as suddenly as it had
begun. A beautiful girl with tan complexion and bathed in the golden beams of
the sun called him by name in Náhuatl, his native language, "Juan
Diego!"
The girl said: "Dear little son, I love you.
I want you to know
who I am.
"I am the Virgin Mary, Mother of the one true God, of Him who
gives life.
He is Lord and Creator of heaven and of earth.
I desire that
there be built a temple at this place where I want to manifest Him, make him
known,
give Him to all people through my love, my compassion, my help, and
my protection. I truly am your merciful Mother, your Mother and the Mother of
all who dwell in this land, and of all mankind,
of all those who love me, of
those who cry to me, and of those who seek and place their trust in me.
Here
I shall listen to their weeping and their sorrows.
I shall take them all to
my heart, and I shall cure their many sufferings, afflictions, and sorrows.
So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Lord Bishop all that you have seen
and heard."
Juan Diego went to the palace of the Franciscan Don Fray
Juan de Zumarraga, and after rude treatment by the servants, was granted an
audience with the Bishop. The Bishop was cordial but hesitant on the first visit
and said that he would consider the request of the Lady and politely invited
Juan Diego to come visit again.
Dismayed, Juan returned to the hill and
found Mary waiting for him (second apparition). He asked her to send someone
more suitable to deliver her message "for I am a nobody."
She said on
this second visit, "Listen, little son. There are many I could send. But you are
the one I have chosen for this task. So, tomorrow morning, go back to the
Bishop. Tell him it is the ever holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God who sends you,
and repeat to him my great desire for a church in this place."
So,
Sunday morning, December 10, Juan Diego called again on the Bishop for the
second time. Again with much difficulty, he was finally granted an audience. The
Bishop was surprised to see him and told him to ask for a sign from the Lady.
Juan Diego reported this to the Virgin (third apparition), and she told
him to return the following morning for the sign. However, when Juan Diego
returned home he found his uncle Juan Bernardino gravely ill. Instead of going
back to Tepeyac, he stayed home with his dying uncle on Monday.
Juan
Diego woke up early Tuesday morning, December 12th, to bring a priest from the
Church of Santiago at Tlatelolco, so that his uncle might receive the last
blessing. Juan had to pass Tepeyac hill to get to the priest. Instead of the
usual route by the west side of the hill, he went around the east side to avoid
the Lady. Guess who descended the hill on the east side to intercept his route!
The Virgin said, "Least of my sons, what is the matter?"
Juan
was embarrassed by her presence (fourth apparition). "My Lady, why are you up so
early? Are you well? Forgive me. My uncle is dying and desires me to find a
priest for the Sacraments. It was no empty promise I made to you yesterday
morning. But my uncle fell ill."
Mary said, "My little son. Do not be
distressed and afraid.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not
under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the fountain of your joy?
Are
you not in the fold of my mantle, in the cradle of my arms?
Your uncle
will not die at this time. This very moment his health is restored. There is no
reason now for your errand, so you can peacefully attend to mine. Go up to the
top of the hill; cut the flowers that are growing there and bring them to me."
Flowers in December? Impossible, thought Juan Diego. But he was
obedient, and sure enough found beautiful Castilian roses on the hilltop. As he
cut them, he decided the best way to protect them against the cold was to cradle
them in his tilma - a long, cloth cape worn by the Aztecs, and often looped up
as a carryall. He ran back to Mary and she rearranged the roses and tied the
lower corners of the tilma behind his neck so that nothing would spill, and
said, "You see, little son, this is the sign I am sending to the Bishop. Tell
him that now he has his sign, he should build the temple I desire in this place.
Do not let anyone but him see what you are carrying. Hold both sides until you
are in his presence and tell him how I intercepted you on your way to fetch a
priest to give the Last Sacraments to your uncle, how I assured you he was
perfectly healed and sent you up to cut these roses, and myself arranged them
like this. Remember, little son, that you are my trusted ambassador, and this
time the Bishop will believe all that you tell him." This fourth apparition was
the last known time Juan Diego ever saw the Virgin Mary.
Juan called for
the third time on the Bishop and explained all that had passed. Then Juan put up
both hands and untied the corners of crude cloth behind his neck. The looped-up
fold of the tilma fell; the flowers he thought were the precious sign tumbled
out on the floor.
The Bishop rose from his chair and fell on his knees
in adoration before the tilma, as well as everyone else in the room. For on the
tilma was the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary just as described by Juan Diego.
While Juan Diego was calling on the Bishop, Juan Bernardino, the dying
uncle, suddenly found his room filled with a soft light. A luminous young woman
filled with love was standing there and told him he would get well. During this
fifth apparition, she told him that she had sent his nephew, Juan Diego, to the
Bishop with an image of herself and said, "Call me and call my image Our Lady
of Guadalupe."
The news of the appearance of the Indian mother who left her imprint on the
tilma spread like wildfire! Three points were appreciated by the native
population. First, the lady was Indian, spoke Náhuatl, the Aztec language, and
appeared to an Indian, not a Spaniard! Second, Juan Diego explained that she
appeared at Tepeyac, the place of Tonantzin, the mother god, sending a clear
message that the Virgin Mary was the mother of the true God, and that the
Christian religion was to replace the Aztec religion. And third, the Indians,
who learned through pictures and symbols in their culture of the image,
grasped the meaning of the tilma, which revealed the beautiful message of
Christianity: the true God sacrificed himself for mankind, instead of the
horrendous life they had endured sacrificing humans to appease the frightful
gods! It is no wonder that over the next seven years, from 1531 to 1538, eight
million natives of Mexico converted to Catholicism!
The Image on the Tilma
The
imprint of Mary on the tilma is striking, and the symbolism was primarily
directed to Juan Diego and the Aztecs. Mary appears as a beautiful young Indian
maiden with a look of love, compassion, and humility, her hands folded in prayer
in reference to the Almighty God. Her rose dress, adorned with a jasmine flower,
eight petal flowers, and nine heart flowers symbolic to the Aztec culture, is
that of an Aztec princess. Her blue mantle symbolized the royalty of the gods,
and the blue color symbolized life and unity. The stars on the mantle signified
the beginning of a new civilization. La Morenita appeared on the day of the
winter solstice, considered the day of the sun's birth; the Virgin's mantle
accurately represents the 1531 winter solstice! Mary stands in front of and
hides the sun, but the rays of the sun still appear around her, signifying she
is greater than the sun god, the greatest of the native divinities, but the rays
of the sun still bring light. Twelve rays of the sun surround her face and head.
She stands on the moon, supported by an angel with wings like an eagle: to the
Aztec, this indicated her superiority to the moon god, the god of night, and her
divine, regal nature.
Most important are the black
maternity band, a jasmine flower, and a cross that are present in the image.
Mary wore a black maternity band, signifying she was with child. At the center
of the picture, overlying her womb, is a jasmine flower in the shape of an
Indian cross, which is the sign of the Divine and the center of the cosmic order
to the Aztec. This symbol indicated that the baby Mary carried within her, Jesus
Christ, the Word made Flesh, is Divine and the new center of the universe. On
the brooch around her neck was a black Christian cross, indicating she is both a
bearer and follower of Christ, the Son of God, our Savior, who died on the Cross
to save mankind.
In summary, the image signified Mary bringing her Son
Christ to the New World through one of their own!
One cannot help but
identify Our Lady of Guadalupe (and Our Lady of Fatima) with the Woman of the
Apocalypse:
a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon at her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars."
Revelation 12:1
The tilma itself was a cape worn by
the Indians of the time, made of ayate, a coarse fiber from agave or the maguey
plant. The cape measures 5.5 x 4.6 feet, and is made in two parts sewn by a
vertical seam made with thread of the same material. The natural life of the
fiber is roughly 30 years, yet the tilma and the image remain intact after 470
years, in spite of moisture, handling, and candles!
The Immediate Aftermath
Bishop
Zumarraga was overwhelmed by the miracle of the tilma, and this time extended
his hospitality to Juan Diego and invited him to spend the night. He gently
removed the tilma and placed it in his private chapel, where all prayed in
thanksgiving for the miracle.
The following day, they set out for
Tepeyac, and Juan Diego showed Bishop Zumarraga where Mary had appeared. The
Bishop directed that a small chapel be erected at the site. The enthusiasm from
the event produced so many volunteers that a chapel in Tepeyac was constructed
by Christmas Day.
Juan Diego then asked leave of the Bishop that he
might see his uncle. The Bishop insisted that Juan Diego be escorted back to his
home and then returned to his palace. Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino were
joyfully reunited, and both recounted to each other the miraculous events. Juan
Diego brought his uncle back to the Bishop's residence to show him the tilma,
and they stayed as guests of the Bishop until Christmas. The convergence of the
curious multitude led the Bishop to move the tilma to the Cathedral so that all
could marvel and pray.
On December 26, 1531, a solemn procession with
the Bishop, Juan Diego, Franciscan priests, and the faithful brought the tilma
from the Cathedral to the Chapel at Tepeyac. Thousands attended the procession.
In the excitement, some Indians shot arrows into the air, and one mortally
wounded a man in the procession. A priest tended to the wound, and prayers were
said to the Virgin, and the man was reported to have been miraculously healed.
This only added to the fervor of the procession.
Juan Diego lived in a
hermitage built for him next to the chapel at Tepeyac, and showed the tilma and
explained the apparition and its Christian significance over and over to
pilgrims who visited the shrine. He died peacefully on May 30, 1548 and was
buried at Tepeyac. Bishop Zumarraga died only three days after Juan Diego.
The miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe led to a tidal wave of conversions.
The few missionaries that initially were met with resistance became overwhelmed
with baptisms, preaching, and instruction in the faith. An early missionary, the
Franciscan Father Toribio de Benavente, recorded in his Historia de los
Indios, published in 1541, that "I have to affirm that at the convent of
Quecholac, another priest and myself baptized 14,200 souls in five days. We even
placed the Oil of Catechumens and Holy Chrism on all of them."
Recent Developments
The Virgin of
Guadalupe is literally intertwined with both the History of the Catholic Church
in the new world and of Mexico itself. To mention a few events, the great floods
of 1629 claimed 30,000 lives and threatened the destruction of the valley of
Mexico, until the waters abated when the image was taken in solemn procession
from Tepayac to Mexico City. A horrible plague in the early 1700s claimed the
lives of 700,000 people, and, once the Virgin of Guadalupe was declared the
Patroness of Mexico on 27 April 1737, the disease dissipated. But before that,
as Mexico became mestizo, the union of Spanish born in Mexico and the Indians,
La Morenita, or the dark Virgin, became the symbol of the people, and they love
her as one of their own.
On November 14, 1921, during a period of
government persecution, a powerful bomb hidden in flowers exploded directly
underneath the tilma during High Mass, and destroyed stone and marble in the
sanctuary and shattered the stained-glass windows of the Basilica. When the
smoke cleared, the congregation was amazed to find that the tilma remained
untouched, and the thin protective glass covering was not even cracked, nor was
anyone hurt.
Scientific studies of the tilma have been undertaken
through the years, which have only served to confirm its supernatural nature.
The tilma remains just as vibrant as ever, having never faded. Famous Mexican
artists such as Miguel Cabrera (1695-1768) determined that it is impossible for
the rough surface of the tilma to support any form of painting. Furthermore, the
tilma appeared to embody four different kinds of painting, oil, tempura,
watercolor, and fresco, blended in an inexplicable fashion. One of the unusual
characteristics of the tilma is that up close the features are unremarkable, but
the tone and depth emerge beyond six or seven feet and the image becomes more
radiant and photogenic.
The astonishing discovery that reflections of
people in Mary's eyes, perhaps Juan Diego and Bishop Zumarraga or the
interpreter Juan Gonzalez, were confirmed by two scientists in 1956. This
phenomenon is seen only with human eyes, not in a painting.
Studies by
infra-red photography in May of 1979 were undertaken by Philip C. Callahan, a
research biophysicist at the University of Florida. He ruled out brush strokes,
overpainting, varnish, sizing, or even preliminary drawings by an artist in the
body of the image. Damage from the 1629 flood was apparent at the edges of the
tilma. He concluded that the original image on the tilma has qualities of color
and uses the weave of the cloth in such a way that the image could not be the
work of human hands.
How did Our Lady identify herself? Bishop Zumarraga
understood the Spanish name Guadalupe, a Marian shrine in Estremadura, Spain.
But Mary spoke Nahuatl to Juan Diego, and some writers suggest that she may have
said Coatlaxopeuh or one "who treads on the snake," recalling Genesis
3:15. On the other hand, Juan Gonzalez, the interpreter present for
conversations between Juan Diego, his uncle, and the Bishop, was reported to be
fluent in both Nahuatl and Spanish, so any misinterpretation would seem
unlikely. Either may be possible, as Mary is our Mother (John 19:25-27).
The tilma of Juan Diego is the only known divine image of the Blessed
Virgin Mary that exists on our planet!
Seven million people from the
Americas visit the Virgin of Guadalupe every year, especially on December 12,
the annual celebration of the miracle. If one visits Mexico City, one can
plainly see who has the heart of the people. One finds the Virgin of Guadalupe
pictured everywhere in Mexico City, in the airport, taxis, bakeries, even on
streetcorners. Our Lady has been the factor that has preserved the Aztec Indians
from the cultural disintegration observed with other Indian populations such as
in North America.
llena eres de gracia,
El Señor es contigo.
Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres,
y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre, Jesús.
Santa María, Madre de Dios,
ruega por nosotros pecadores,
ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte.
Amén.
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