The Virgin of Guadalupe
It is quite hard for a European protestant to understand the nature and significance of Our Lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe whose 'day' it is today (12th December).
Having a named 'day' casts her somewhat in the nature of a saint. But is she a saint? Without any training in the theology of Catholicism, I have nevertheless developed a working understanding of the word and the concept of a saint –– as of a mortal raised some way towards the status of a divinity by virtue of some act of extraordinary charity or of extraordinary steadfastness in her (or his) expressed devotion to the Catholic Faith. We understand that at least two confirmed miracles are required at proof (a) that the being is now in heaven, and (b) that heaven is in support of the nomination (canonisation).
But if 'sainthood' merely means having some 'quality of the divine', then of course 'Mary-mother-of God' qualifies, a fortiori. So the remarkable feature in the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe is that she appeared to the native Indian Juan Diego (born Cuauhtlatoatzin) in that place 6.5 Km to the north of the recently (13 Aug., 1521) conquered and destroyed Aztec city of México/Tenochtitlán. It seems only right that he should get some credit for being chosen.
Therefore, the processes of the canonisation of 'The Virgin of Guadalupe' and of 'Juan Diego' were linked, complex and long drawn out. How could one tell if the tale Juan Diego told, of seeing a pregnant lady on the hillside on 9th Dec 1531, were truly an apparition or just a dream or a passer-by? Well, she appeared again the next day. And the next day she told Juan Diego to ask the Bishop to build a shrine on that site. Finally, on the 12th December 1531 she showed Juan Diego where to pick roses. He filled his cloak with roses and took them to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. When the roses were tipped on the floor the cloak was revealed to have on it a picture of a lady resembling both the Nahua goddess Tonantzin and 'Mary, mother of Jesus. [Ref1][Ref3]
Juan Diego died 17 years later. His relics and his Tilma cloak remain at the spot. These events made an enormous impression on the native population, and a cult of devotion and enormous gratitude developed somewhat independently of the Spanish Catholicism that also existed in Mexico. A church was built but that is now buried under a subsequent church, the Capilla de Indios (built in 1649), built to accommodate the native way of worshipping.
What a genuinely marvellous leap of imagination was that made by Juan Diego in realising the close affinity between Mary the Mother of Jesus and Tonantzin, Goddess of the Universe! Add the moon and some stars to the pregnant Mary and lo! there is Tonantzin.
Isolated native communities may retain many elements of their old religion [Ref2], but in modern Mexico there are many millions who embrace this hybrid; the devotion shown to Our Lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is beyond anything seen in modern Britain. On the 12th December each year some 12 million people flock to the church on the hill of Tepeyac , now a giant Basilica and a religious complex with library. Over the space of four centuries the two faiths have grown together.
At noon on 11th December 2025, as we drove out of Mexico City we saw gaggles of 'pilgrims' gathering. Busses from more distant parts, walkers from nearer. We saw several pilgrims in running gear carrying flaming torches (like the Olympic torch-bearer) each followed by a pickup truck crammed with spectators and supporters, standing or sitting on the edge of the vehicle. That evening I lay in bed listening to the erratic "bang.......bang-bang" as giant, 'devotional', fire-crackers went off all over the city.
'Our Lady of Guadalupe' was made a Catholic saint on July 31, 1979. Her reach is still extending. From Patagonia to Canada she is now OUR Lady, of the Americas. But above all she is Mexican (or perhaps Palestinian).
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was beatified in 1990, and made a Catholic saint on July 31, 2002; 471 years after he was afforded that seminal interview with the Mother of Jesus. He was given 9th Dec as his 'saint's day'. [Ref4]
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