12 December: Our Lady of Guadalupe
The Evangelizer of the New World
There is no Latin American who does not know Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is invoked as Empress of the Americas and Patron Saint of Mexico, and is worshipped by indigenous peoples as “Virgen morenita”, young indigenous woman.
Her image has become a national symbol for millions of Mexicans, even beyond the religious sphere. She represents a meeting point between pre-Hispanic and European cultures, and the spread of the Gospel throughout the continent is largely thanks to her.
She is celebrated on 12 December because, according to tradition, between 9 and 12 December 1531, Mary appeared on Tepeyac Hill, north of Mexico City, to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an indigenous man who had been baptized seven years earlier. The name Guadalupe is said to have been dictated by Mary herself to Juan Diego: some believe it is the Spanish transcription of the Aztec expression Coatlaxopeuh, “she who crushes the serpent” (cf. Genesis 3:14-``5).
A chapel was built on the site of her apparition, which was consecrated as a Marian Shrine, in 1622.
Tradition holds that, while he was walking on Tepeyac Hill at dawn, Juan Diego heard a song and a voice calling him by his name in his mother tongue. He saw a Woman, who introduced herself as “the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God”. Mary asked Juan Diego to have a church built in her honour in that place, and instructed him to go to the Bishop to tell him her desire.
Juan Diego went to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to tell him about the apparition, but not giving much importance to his account, the Bishop told him to return on another day. Disheartened, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac Hill, where he met the Virgin Mary again. She urged him not to abandon his mission to convey her message to the Bishop.
The following day, Juan Diego made another attempt to speak to the Bishop. The Bishop asked him to provide a sign as proof, so he could believe him. Juan Diego passed on the message to Our Lady who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill the next day.
When Juan Diego returned home, he found that his uncle, Juan Bernardino, had fallen gravely ill and spent the night and the following day taking care of him. While he was looking for a priest for his uncle, Mary appeared to him and asked him where he was going. Juan Diego explained the situation and asked for her forgiveness for not having followed through on her request the day earlier.
The Virgin Mary reassured Juan Diego, saying that he need not worry about his uncle’s illness for he had already been healed, adding that the promised sign was not the healing. Our Lady asked him to go to Tepeyac Hill and to pick some flowers, despite the fact that it was winter. Juan Diego found some roses. After picking them, he brought them to the Virgin Mary, who touched them and instructed him to take them to the Bishop as proof of her message. When Juan Diego went to the Bishop and opened his cloak to reveal the flowers, an image of Our Lady appeared on the fabric, the “morenita”. Faced with this miracle, the Bishop finally believed Juan Diego’s story.