On December 12th, 1531, the image of The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, is said to have appeared on the robe of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.  Juan Diego was an Aztec convert to Roman Catholicism, bridging two worlds, that of the Aztec who saw her and that of the Spanish conquerors who now ruled his land.  She has since become the patron and symbol of Mexico, a country born of this fusion of cultures.

According to the traditional account, Juan Diego was walking between his village and Mexico City on December 9th, 1531, when Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared, speaking to him in his native Náhuatl language.  She told him she wanted a church built on Tepeyac Hill and told him to communicate her wish to the authorities. Juan Diego told Mexico's first Bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, but the Bishop didn't believe him.  The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego again, asking him to go see the Bishop on Sunday.  When Juan Diego went to go see the Bishop again, Zumárraga asked for proof.  The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego a third time and told him to return the next day.  His uncle, with whom he lived, became very ill, and Juan Diego went to find a priest to give him the last rites.  The Virgin appeared for the fourth and last time on December 12th, 1531.  She told Juan Diego not to worry, that his uncle was well, that she was his mother and he need fear nothing.  She asked him to go gather some roses, which had never grown there, and especially in mid-winter. Miraculously, roses started to bloom at his feet.  He wrapped them in his robe, and the Virgin told him not to open it until he was before the Bishop.  When Juan Diego opened his robe in front of Bishop Zumárraga, the roses cascaded out and they discovered the image of the Virgin imprinted upon it.  The bishop ordered a church built at once, dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.   

The original cloth with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is on display in Mexico City at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica.  Pilgrims from all over Mexico and abroad converge on Tepeyac Hill and the Basilica, seeking healing and favors, keeping vows, or simply paying homage to their beloved Little Mother, Queen of Mexico.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is celebrated every year on December 12th.

Some Interesting Information About The Miraculous Image

The robe Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin wore was studied by Philip Serna Callahan in 1981 with infrared rays.  He reported that the portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no paintbrush strokes.

The Nobel Chemistry prize recipient Richard Kuhn said in 1936 that the coloring was not from a mineral, vegetable, or animal source.  Studies started in 1956 and continuing to the present by several ophthalmologists, including Dr. Javier Torroella Bueno and Dr. José Aste Tonsmann, claim to have found images reflected in the eyes of the Virgin after amplifying the photographs 2,500 times.  The pupils reflect a group of Native Americans and Franciscans.

Some textile experts have said that they cannot understand how the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been conserved since 1531, exposed to dust, heat, humidity, and even a bomb without wearing down and without discoloration.

In February of 1979, Dr Jose Aste discovered an enlargement of each pupil digitalized contained twelve people.  The miracle did not stop here.  One of the images was of Bishop Juan de Zumárraga who built the Basilica at Guadalupe's request.  When the pupil of the bishop's eye was enlarged 1000 times the image of Juan Diego showing the tunic with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe reflected in the eyes of the bishop.  The image is the size of a micron or 1/4 of a millimeter.

If one approaches the cloth of the tunic the colors of the image disappears.  It is as though the image is suspended in air and not directly on the fabric.  NASA also did the following experiment on the robe.  They shown a laser beam on the side of the fabric and the laser beam neither touched the image nor the fabric of the tunic.  The image seems to be “alive” above the fabric and can only be seen as one distances oneself from the tunic.

In 1936, the Jewish chemist Dr Richard Khun was contracted to analyze the fibers of the tunic for which he won a Nobel Prize in chemistry two years later.  He discovered the dye had no vegetable nor mineral nor animal origin and was not of the known 111 known elements.