[Saint] Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin [Catholic Caucus]

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[Salvation]

Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
(1474-1548)

 

St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548). Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaelogical and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. 

Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle") in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. 

When he was 50 years old he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries. On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. 

With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. 

Much deeper than the "exterior grace" of having been "chosen" as Our Lady's "messenger", Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbour. He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. 

The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World, and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego.

 

For Pope John Paul's Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, click here -

For the History of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Click Here -

For Pope John Paul's Homily for Juan Diego's Canonization, click here -

[Salvation]

The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac.

[sayuncledave]

For those who haven’t seen the tilma, this link should give you a decent look.

http://gracefulrosaries.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-feast-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe.html

Chose this link simply for the larger image.

Some overview from one of the websites about this:

Overview of Our Lady of Guadalupe

In 1487 in a single four days long ceremony for the dedication of a new an Aztec temple in Tenochtitlan, some 80,000 captives were killed in human sacrifice. The same practice included the cannibalism of the victims’ limbs.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the Americas and named it San Salvador.

In 1521 the Spanish Conquest of Tenochtitlan. Two-hundred and forty thousand Aztecs are estimated to have died during the siege, which lasted eighty days

In 1531 a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to a humble Native American at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of what is now Mexico City.
The Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian of ordinary standing, and addressed him in his native Indian Language.
“Know and understand well, you the most humble of my son, that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth.”

Mary directed Juan Diego to visit the archbishop of Mexico and to inform him of her desire to have a church built in her honor on Tepeyac.
Mary miraculously provided her messenger colorful roses in the winter, in a spot where normally only desert plants would grow.

Juan Diego gathered the roses into his tilma, and was told by the Virgin Mother to present the roses and tilma to the Franciscan Bishop-elect, Juan Zumarraga.

When St. Juan Diego unfolded his tilma before the Bishop, the roses cascaded to the floor and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously impressed to the cloth.

The Image of Our Lady that appeared on the tilma, which can still be seen in Mexico City today, is truly miraculous and has been the wonder of scientists for hundreds of years. All, after exhaustive investigation with sophisticated analytic detectors, have concluded that the work is beyond the power of men to produce.

This is a photograph of an actual artifact of Our Lady of Guadalupe. You can go and see it with your own eyes.

It is on a tilma made of cactus that last less than 10 years, yet you are looking at an image that is 477 years old.

In 1541 Franciscan priest writes that some nine million Aztecs Indians had become Christians.

An almost universal symbol of the Aztec religion was the serpent. The temples were richly decorated with snakes. Certainly, in this case She crushed the serpent.

An incredible list of miracles, cures and interventions are attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Between 18 - 20 million pilgrims visit the Basilica each year, making it Christianity’s most visited sanctuary.

Altogether 25 popes have officially honored Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Today approximately 70% of all Hispanics are Catholic

[Mad Dawg]

This page is labeled "Catholic Caucus".

Go HERE to see the guidelines for the religion forum.

A "Caucus" thread is closed to those not members of the named group.

[Tax-chick]

We had a presentation on Our Lady of Guadalupe at Mass last Sunday, with several Spanish-speaking youngsters (and my Bill, conscripted under the threat of having his Spanish credit revoked :-) read a play about the apparation.

As recorded by the original chronicler, the dialogue is a charming combination of familiarity and awe. The Blessed Mother calls Juan Diego and his uncle, Juan Bernardino, “Dearest Johnny,” and “little son,” although they’re men of mature years, and they address her as “most darling little girl” and “sweetest little mother.”

[Mad Dawg]

Ay, que linda!

[Judith Anne]

I read somewhere recently that there is an image in the pupils of the Virgin’s eyes showing the bishop and others who were present when Juan presented the tilma filled with roses. The image could not have been painted...also the soft fibers comprising the tilma are over 400 years old, and normal cloth made from those natural fibers would have disintegrated quickly, yet this is preserved by unknown means.

[Salvation]

this is a Catholic Caucus. You must not be Catholic or you wouldn’t have asked the question about the three steps to the canonization of a saint.

[Salvation]

It’s in the links for Our Lady of Guadalupe, I believe. Yes, it baffles scientists.

[Judith Anne]

Yes, I just went and re-read it. Photos of the enlarged images exist.

[Religion Moderator]

This Religion Forum thread is labeled “Catholic Caucus” meaning if you are not currently, actively Catholic then do not post on this thread.

[Salvation]

[Saint] Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin [Catholic Caucus]
Miracle that Brought Gospel to Millions of Mexicans
St. Juan Diego's tilma: "completely outside" science
Science Sees What Mary Saw From Juan Diego’s Tilma
Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady
Why Juan Diego is an American Saint
Pope Canonizes American Indian Saint
Blessed Juan Diego: A Model of Humility
Canonization of Juan Diego drawing Texans to Mexico City
Pope to Visit Mexico in July to Canonize Juan Diego.