Our Lady of Guadalupe - Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Well I learned a little about the shrine that I took a snapshot of the other day. I knew that it had to be something rather important within the Roman Catholic Church of the Mexican people because I came across this image quite often.

I grew up in Catholic schools and practiced the Catholic religion for many years, so I merely thought this was an alter erected to The Virgin Mary, and it is, but it is much more than that.

I am also use to seeing Jesus on the cross in Catholic churches a great deal more than statues and pictures of the Virgin Mary. So I figured that there had to be some other significance , and there is.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is a 16th Century Roman Catholic icon of the Mexican People. She depicts an apparition of the Virgin Mary.
I am going to attempt to tell the story of the Guadalupan apparition.

On December 9th, 1531, quite early in the morning, Juan Diego was walking from his village to the city when he was approached by a young girl between 14 - 16 years of age on the top of the hill in the Mexican Federal District.

He noticed that she was surrounded by a light, and he knew who she was, The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.
Speaking in an Aztecan language specific to Central Mexico, she asked Juan Diego to build a church at this very site in her honor. Diego went to the Spanish bishop to ask his permission and the bishop wanted proof of this claim. Diego told the lady that the bishop wanted this proof, that she was in fact The Virgin Mary. In order to provide him this request, she told him to go and pick some flowers at the top of the hill.

It was the dead of winter and there were no flowers in bloom, but there he found some beautiful Castillian roses. He brought them back to her and she re-arranged them herself in his tilman. A tilman is a type of outer garment worn by the men among the Aztecs and other people of Central Mexico. The garment is usually worn across the front like an apron, or across the shoulder like a cloak, and even used as a carry-all.

When Diego presented the roses to the bishop wrapped up in the tilman, as they were unwrapped by the bishop, the image of the Virgin miraculously appeared on Diego's tilman. While Diego was thinking that the roses was the miracle, it was actually the imprint of the Virgin of Guadalupe that was the miracle, and still is today, because it is said to be in perfect condition as it was the day it happened. It has not faded or deteriorated in any way, when this cloth is known to begin deterioration in about 15 years.

After close examination by many scientist, it is said that this image sits slightly above the cloth and not ingrained in the fiber.
So the photograph that I took of the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, of which I called an alter to the Virgin Mary, is actually a replica of the image on Diego's tilman.
There is actually a shrine built in Mexico City to the Virgin and is visited quite often; it is called the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and is the second most visited Roman Catholic shrine in the world. Guadalupe's feast day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating this account of her appearance to Diego.

It is fascinating to me to learn about the cultures of others and understand more and more how others live and what they live for. Hopefully soon I will get some better pictures of this shrine and others that I come across as well.