The apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe is unique in Church history.
The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a humble peasant Indian man on Tepeyac hill in Mexico two times from December 9 to December 12 in 1531 A.D.
The Blessed Virgin Mary seems to choose the poor for her instruments in many of her apparitions like those of Our Lady of Fatima.
The Manifestation of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Blessed Juan Diego was crossing the hill of Tepeyac to return home from Mexico City.
During his walk, he noticed something very unusual. A young woman about the age of sixteen appeared to be surrounded in light as she appeared at the top of the hill. Since it was winter, the landscape was fairly barren and this image definitely caught his attention.
When he approached the woman, she asked that a chapel be built on the very spot in her honor. It was at this moment that Juan Diego realized that this woman was the Blessed Virgin Mary.
She came looking pregnant, wearing an inner garment of an orange-pink with many spectacular designs upon it. Her outer garment was a shade of turquoise green, with stars and gilded gold. Surrounding the Blessed Virgin Mary were the rays of the sun and her face was dark like the native Indians of Mexico.
The Miracle of the Roses
The Blessed Virgin sent Juan Diego to speak to the local bishop about her request to construct a church on the hilltop. And when he arrived, the Bishop gave him little notice except to ask that the Blessed Virgin give him a miraculous sign.
The following day, he again came across the very same Tepeyac hill to find the Blessed Virgin waiting for him again. When asked to produce a miracle, she immediately was able to make all the roses bloom in the midst of winter – many beautifully colored roses. Juan Diego gathered these miraculous roses into his tilma, the garment he wore in hopes of bringing them to the Bishop.
When he arrived at the Church, he planned to open his tilma and allow the miraculous roses to fall to the floor. Ironically, when he did so, the bishop recognized them as Castilian roses, which were not native to the area, but were native to where he had grown up. But no roses ever grew at this time of year on Tepeyac Hill, and there was something much more astonishing for them to see.
Emblazoned upon the tilma of Juan Diego was the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in living color. That same garment remains intact today, even though it was made of a cloth which normally decomposes within 30 to 40 years. It is enshrined in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe and remains a testament to God’s creative genius.
The Message of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Many of the Aztec Indians had lost their beliefs after the Spanish conquest of their peoples. It was Our Lady of Guadalupe, appearing through the humble Indian man – who gave an open invitation to all the native peoples that they were her children, too.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is loved and revered the world over, but especially in Mexico, and Central and South America. Our Lady of Guadalupe brought the people together and gave them a home in the Catholic Faith.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is also referred to as Our Lady of the Americas.
Other apparitions which had similarly powerful and positive effects included Our Lady of Good Counsel and Our Lady of Hungary.
Sources:
- Those who Saw Her: Apparitions of Mary, by Catherine M. Odell.
- Catherine Laboure and the Modern Apparitions of Our Lady, by Abbe Omer Englebert.
- Miraculous Images: Photographs Containing God's Fingerprints, by Marilynn Hughes.
- Medjugorje: Light for the World, by Pietro Jacopini.
- Our Lady Comes to Garabandal, by Joseph A. Pelletier, A.A.
- The Wonder of Guadalupe, by Francis Johnston.
- The Glories of Czestochowa and Jasna, To the Priests Our Lady's Beloved Sons, by Marian Movement of Priests.
- Our Lady of America, by Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil.
- The Thunder of Justice, by Ted and Maureen Flynn.
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