Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Story of the Marian Apparition

The story of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Marian apparition dates to December 1531 in Mexico. Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant and recently converted Catholic, saw the Virgin Mary appear to him on a hill near present-day Mexico City. In his native language, Nahuatl, she asked that a church be built where she appeared to show the infinite majesty and mercy of God to all His children. However, when Juan Diego told the local bishop, the Most Rev. Juan de Zumarraga, of the request made by the woman of the apparition, whom Diego identified as the Blessed Mother, the bishop did not believe him and asked for a sign of the woman’s identity.

Diego’s uncle, Juan Bernardino, also reported seeing Our Lady of Guadalupe. Again, she appeared to Diego and instructed him to gather flowers from a nearby hill — Tepeyac Hill. In December, the hill would normally be barren, but Castilian roses (not native to Mexico, but were found in Spain where Bishop Zumarraga was from and would recognize) were blooming. The Blessed Mother arranged the roses in Diego’s tilma, which is like a cloak.

Diego then went to the bishop to deliver the sign he requested. Upon opening the tilma, the roses fell to the ground and revealed the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma.

The life-sized image displayed symbols that were meaningful to the Indigenous Aztec people. For example, the black maternity sash around her waist was a symbol of being with child, and wearing her hair loose was a symbol of virginity. Her eyes were downcast in humility with her hands clasped in prayer, showing she was not a god, but she was praying to God. Standing on the crescent moon and in front of the sun blocking its rays symbolized that the child in her womb was stronger than their pagan deities and was the one true all-powerful God. To the Indigenous Aztec people, the combination of these symbols meant that she was the Virgin Mother of the one true all-powerful God.

In the centuries since the apparition in 1531, the Image has become Mexico’s and the Hispanic diaspora’s most popular religious and cultural symbol. Like the Shroud of Turin, the Image has many characteristics that are considered to be naturalistically inexplicable — miraculous.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the few Marian apparitions in the world that has received the Holy See’s highest level of approval.