Excerpted from Exploring the Miraculous (OSV):
On May 7, 1979, Philip Serna Callahan, an accomplished biologist who has written fourteen books and two hundred scientific papers, was invited by the rector of the shrine, Msgr. Enrique Salazar, to conduct infrared photographic tests on the tilma. Infrared photography allows the scientist to obtain “historical data of the historical derivation, the method of rendition and the validity of documents and paintings.” Between 9 p.m. and midnight, he took forty exposures, from a distance and close up, and concluded that the original image had been substantially embellished over the years.The first additions were the moon and the tassel, followed by the gold and black decorations, the angel, and the fold in robe, the sunburst, and the background.The elements that were found to be original are the red robe, the blue mantle, the face, and the hands. Callahan noted:
In terms of this infrared study, there is no way to explain either the kind of color pigments, or the maintenance of color luminosity and brightness over the centuries. When consideration is given to the fact that there is no under drawing, sizing or over varnish, and the weave of the fabric itself is utilized to give the portrait depth, no explanation of the portrait is possible by infrared tech- niques. It is remarkable that after more than four centuries there is no fading or cracking of the original figure on any portion of the agave tilma, which should have deteriorated centuries ago. (Philip Serna Callahan, The Tilma under Infra-Red Radiation, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, vol. 2, Guadalupan Studies, no. 3 (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 1981).
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyac Hill, Mexico (1531)
Title: Our Lady of Guadalupe
Feast Day: December 12th
Investigated: 1666, 1723
First Apparition: Dec 9, 1531
Approved: 1555 by Archbishop Alonso de Montúfar (1551-1572)
Last Apparition: Dec 12, 1531
Visionaries: St. Juan Diego (57), Juan Bernardino
Number of Apparitions: 5
Miracles &Signs: Tilma of Juan Diego with imprint of image of Virgin ; conversion of millions of indians
Summary: Mary proclaimed herself "the Mother of the true God who gives life" and left her image permanently upon the tilma of St. Juan Diego, a man newly converted to Christianity. Her likeness was given as a sign to Bishop Zumarraga, who abided by her wishes and constructed a church on Mt. Tepeyacac, the site of the apparitions. Millions of natives were converted to Christianity during the period following her visit. Our Lady of Guadalupe has been designated as the Patron Saint of the Americas.
Visionary
St. 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, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City.
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.
The Messages of Guadalupe
Excerpted from an English translation of Luis Lasso de la Vega's 1649 copy of the the Nican Mopohua written in Nahuatl by the Indian scholar Antonio Valeriano in the mid-16th century.
Timeline
1474
Quauhtlatoatzin (Juan Diego) is born in Cuautitlan.
1476ss
Juan de Zumarraga was born in Spain.
1492
Christopher Columbus lands on an island in the Americas and named it San Salvador.
1514
The first Marian Shrine in the New World is established in the city of Higuey.
1519
Hernan Cortez lands in Mexico.
1521
The capital city of the Aztecs falls under Cortez.
1524
The first 12 Franciscans arrive in Mexico City.
1525
Quauhtlatoatzin is baptized by a Franciscan priest and receives the Christian name of Juan Diego.
1528
Friar Juan de Zumarraga arrives in the New World.
1529
Juan Diego’s wife, Maria, dies.
Dec 9, 1531
The Virgin appears to Juan Diego on top of mount Tepeyacac speaking to him in Nahuatl, his native tongue. She called him “Xocoyte,” her little son. She requests that he petition the bishop of Mexico that a “teocalli,” a sacred little house, be built on the spot. Juan Diego, calling her her “Xocoyata,” his littlest daughter, agrees to comply with her mandate and meets with the Bishop who listens to the message but does not believe his words. On his return he encounters the Virgin again who insists that he return to the Bishop with the same message the next day.
Dec 10, 1531
Juan does not return to the bishop the next day because his uncle Juan Bernardino takes ill and requests Juan Diego to find a priest for his final confession.
Dec 11, 1531
Juan goes from his home to Tlatilolco to summon a priest and despite trying to avoid her, encounters along the way the Virgin who promises that his uncle will be cured. She urges him to climb to the top of the hilltop and gather the roses growing there in December as the sign for the Bishop to believe. When the Bishop finally received him, Juan unfurled his tilma and revealed the image of the Virgin miraculously painted there.
Dec 12, 1531
Juan Diego shows the Bishop the location of the apparition on which the church was to be built. He then returned to his uncle who was cured of his illness and had an experienced a visitation from the Virgin himself.
Dec 24, 1531
Bishop Zumarraga writes a letter to Cortez stating: "I want to dedicate my cathedral to the Immaculate Conception because it was during that feast that God and his Blessed Mother deigned to shower the land you won with great favor."
1533
The first sanctuary is erected at the request of the Virgin. 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 Virgin.
1541
Franciscan priest and early historian of New Spain “Motolinia” writes that some nine million Aztecs had become Christians
1548
Bishop Juan de Zumarraga dies.
May 30, 1548
Juan Diego dies and is buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
(The Codex 1548 is discovered in 1995 in a private collection. it commemorates the death of Juan Diego in 1548 and provides the earliest illustration of him and the earliest reference to his birth name, Cuauhtlatoatzin. It is signed by Antonio Valeriano and Bernardindo de Sahagun.)
June 1554
Alonso de Montúfar was consecrated in 1553 and finally reached his see in Mexico City as the second archbishop of Mexico.
1555
In the Provincial Counsel, the second archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar (1551-1572), formulates canons that indirectly approved the apparitions.
1556
Archbishop Montúfar begins the erection of the second church.
1561
The Valeriano Relation (the Nican Mopohua) is written by an Indian named Antonio Valeriano between 1551 and 1561.
1564
An image is carried on the first formal expedition to the Philippine Islands.
1567
The new church ordered by Archbishop Montufar is completed.
1570
Archbishop Montufar sends an oil painted copy of the image of Guadalupe to King Philip II of Spain.
1571
Admiral Doria carries a copy of the image aboard ship during the battle of Lepanto and attributes the victory over the Ottoman Empire to the Virgin of Guadalupe
1573
The “Primitive Relation” is written by the historian Juan de Tovar, who transcribed the story from a still earlier source, probably Juan Gonzalez, Bishop’s Zumarraga’s translator.
1647
The image is covered with glass for the first time.
1648
The priest Miguel Sanchez publishes “Image of the Virgin Mary, Guadalupan Mother of God” in Mexico City.
1649
Luis Lasso de la Vega publishes the “Huey Tlanahuicoltica”, telling the story in Nahuatl. It refers to earlier Nahuatl sources.
1666
A formal inquiry and investigation, named Informaciones Guadalupana, is conducted by the Church from February 18 to March 22. Juan Diego was called a "holy man".
1695
The first stone of the new sanctuary is laid..
1709
The new sanctuary is solemnly dedicated.
1723
Another formal investigation is ordered by Archbishop Lanziego y Eguilaz.
1737
The Most Holy Mary of Guadalupe is chosen as the patroness of the city of Mexico.
1746
The patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe is accepted for all of New Spain (California to El Salvador).
1746
The knight Boturini Benaducci promotes the solemn and official coronation of the image.
May 25, 1754
Benedict XIV approves the patronage of New Spain and granted a Mass and Office proper to the celebration of the feast on December 12.
1756
Painter Miguel Cabrera publishes his extensive study of the Image in the book “American Marvel”.
1757
The Virgin of Guadalupe is declared patroness of the citizens of Ciudad Ponce in Puerto Rico.
1767
The religious of the Society of Jesus are expelled from the Spanish dominions, and the image is carried to various parts of the world.
1895
The coronation of the image is performed, with pontifical authority and the a great part of the episcopate of the Americas in attendance.
1910
Pius X declares the Virgin of Guadalupe Patroness of Latin America.
1911
A church is built on the site of Juan Bernardino’s home.
1921
A bomb placed beneath the image explodes but the tilma survives.
1924
A very important 16th century source documenting the miracle is found in Tetlapalco, Peru in 1924 by anthropologist M.H. Saville. It is a pictorial calendar known as the Codex Saville-Tetlapalco and shows the image of our Lady located in the position representing the year 1531.
1928
A coronation of the image was made in Santa Fe, Argentina.
1929
First documented note of an apparent reflected image of a man’s head in the right eye of the Virgin, by photographer Alfonso Marcue. Alfonso Gonzales, a photographer of the Basilica of Guadalupe, after studying the negative of the image, found what seemed to be a clear image of a bearded man reflected in the right eye.
1935
Pius XI extended the patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Philippines.
1945
Pius XII states that the Virgin of Guadalupe was the “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” and that she had been painted “by brushes that were not of this world”.
1946
Pope Pius XII declares her to be the Patroness of the Americas.
1951
Carlos Salinas examines the tilma and observes the apparent reflection of a man’s head in the right eye of the Virgin
1956
Dr. Torroela-Bueno, an ophthalmologist, examines the eyes of the Virgin on the tilma.
1958
Dr. Rafael Torija-Lavoignet publishes his study of the Purkinje-Sanson effect as exhibited in the Guadalupan image.
1961
Pope John XXIII prays to her as Mother of the Americas. He addresses her as Mother and Teacher of the Faith to the peoples of the Americas
1962
Dr. Charles Wahlig, O.D. announces the discovery of two images apparently reflected in the eyes of the Virgin when studying a photograph enlarged twenty five times.
1966
Pope Paul VI sends a Golden Rose to the Basilica.
1975
Glass is removed so the image could be examined by another ophthalmologist, Dr. Enrique Grave.
1976
The New Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located four miles from central Mexico City, is dedicated.
1979
Dr. Philip Callahan takes 40 frames of infra-red photographs of the image. Later concluded that the original image is unexplainable as a human work.
1979
Pope John Paul II called her the “Star of Evangelization”, knelt before her image, invoked her motherly assistance and called upon her as Mother of the Americas.
1979
Dr. Jose Aste-Tonsmann announces the finding of at least four human figures apparently reflected in both eyes of the Virgin. Dr. Tosmann used sophisticated image processing techniques with digitized photographs of both eyes.
December 22, 1981
At the Observatory Laplace Mexico City, Father Mario Rojas and Dr. Juan Hernández Illescas, a medical doctor and amateur astronomer, performed an astronomical study of the Image and analyzed the stellar arrangement that appear in the Mantle of Our Lady. They surprisingly discovered that the stars stunningly and accurately map out the various constellations of the Mexican sky. Even more remarkable is the "star map" on the mantle is in the reverse (the cardinal axis rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise): providing a view of the constellations from beyond them, as would be seen looking through them towards the earth. The constellations are consistent with what astronomers believe was in the sky above Mexico City on the day the apparition occurred - in the winter-morning solstice of December 12, 1531, Saturday, at 10:26AM.
1987
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints declares Juan Diego venerable.
1988
The liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 is raised to the status of a feast in all dioceses in the United States.
May 6, 1990
Juan Diego is beatified by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria de Guadalupe, Mexico City. The Pope declares Dec. 9 the feast of Juan Diego and invokes him as “protector and advocate of the indigenous peoples.”
1992
Pope John Paul II dedicates a chapel in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter’s Basilica.
1995
The Codex 1548 (also known as Codex Escalada) is discovered in a private collection. it commemorates the death of Juan Diego in 1548 and provides the earliest illustration of him and the earliest reference to his birth name, Cuauhtlatoatzin. It features a pictogram of Antonio Valeriano and a signature of Bernardino de Sahagún.
1996
Controversy over the historical authenticity of Juan Diego is stirred by Father William Schulenburg, a longtime abbot of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who calls Juan Diego a "mythical character".
July 31, 1997
Father Xavier Escalada, S. J. published an illustration of the apparition with the signature of Don Antonio Valeriano dated 1548 was recently uncovered in a private collection in 2002 was named "Codex of 1548" or "Codex Escalada". The Codex has been scientifically studied and determined to be genuine, and substantiates the historical basis of the apparition of Guadalupe.
The English literal translation is as follows:
"Ten years after the seizure of the city of Mexico, war came to an end and there was peace amongst the people; in this manner faith started to bud, the understanding of the true God, for whom we live. At that time, in the year fifteen hundred and thirty one, in the early days of the month of December, it happened that there lived a poor Indian, named Juan Diego, said being a native of Cuautitlan. Of all things spiritually he belonged to Tlatilolco."
Oct. 28, 1998
The Vatican subsequently established a commission of 30 researchers from various countries to investigate the question of the historical authenticity of Juan Diego. The commission successfully proved that Juan Diego had indeed existed, and the results of their research were presented to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Among research documents submitted at that time were 27 Guadalupe Indian documents. One called the “Escalada,” co-authored by Valeriano and Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagun, contained a death certificate of Juan Diego.
March 25, 1999
Pope John Paul II, during his third visit to the sanctuary, declares the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent. Read the declaration.
July 31, 2002
Juan Diego is canonized by Pope John Paul II in Mexico City.
Dec 12, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI stated:
The venerated image of the Black Madonna of Tepeyac, with her sweet and peaceful countenance, imprinted on the tilma of the indio St. Juan Diego, shows her as “the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God from whom she lives” (From the Office of Readings. Nicán Mopohua, 12th ed., Mexico City, D.F., 1971, 3-19).
She reminds us of the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child” (Rev 12:1-2).
She signals the presence of the Savior to the indigenous and mestizo population.
She always leads us to her divine Son, who is revealed as the foundation of the dignity of every human being, as a love that is stronger than the powers of evil and death, and the fountain of joy, filial trust, consolation and hope.
FIRST APPARITION (SATURDAY)
The Blessed Virgin: “Juanito, the most humble of my sons, where are you going?”
Juan Diego: “My Lady and Child, I have to reach your church in Mexico, Tlatilolco, to pursue things divine, taught and given to us by our priests, delegates of Our Lord.”
The Virgin: “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. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection,
because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows. And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me;
you will accurately relate all you have seen and admired, and what you have heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful and will reward you, because I will make you happy and worthy of recompense for the effort and fatigue in what you will obtain of what I have entrusted. Behold, you have heard my mandate, my humble son; go and put forth all your effort.”
Juan Diego: “My Lady, I am going to comply with your mandate; now I must part from you, I, your humble servant.”
SECOND APPARITION (SATURDAY)
Juan Diego: “Lady, the least of my daughters, my Child, I went where you sent me to comply with your command. With difficulty I entered the prelate’s study. I saw him and exposed your message, just as you instructed me.
He received me benevolently and listened attentively, but when he replied, it appeared that he did not believe me. He said: “You will return; I will hear you at my pleasure. I will review from the beginning the wish and desire which you have brought.”
I perfectly understood by the manner he replied that he believes it to be an invention of mine that you wish that a temple be built here to you, and that it is not your order; for which I exceedingly beg, Lady and my Child, that you entrust the delivery of your message to someone of importance, well known, respected, and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody,
I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf, and you, my Child, the least of my children, my Lady, you send me to a place where I never visit nor repose. Please excuse the great unpleasantness and let not fretfulness befall, my Lady and my All.”
The Blessed Virgin: “Hark, my son the least, you must understand that I have many servants and messengers, to whom I must entrust the delivery of my message, and carry my wish, but it is of precise detail that you yourself solicit and assist and that through your mediation my wish be complied.
I earnestly implore, my son the least, and with sternness I command that you again go tomorrow and see the bishop. You go in my name, and make known my wish in its entirety that he has to start the erection of a temple which I ask of him. And again tell him that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.”
Juan Diego: “Lady, my Child, let me not cause you affliction. Gladly and willingly I will go to comply your mandate. Under no condition will I fail to do it, for not even the way is distressing.
I will go to do your wish, but perhaps I will not be heard with liking, or if I am heard I might not be believed. Tomorrow afternoon, at sunset, I will come to bring you the result of your message with the prelate’s reply. I now take leave, my Child, the least, my Child and Lady. Rest in the meantime.”
THIRD APPARITION (SUNDAY)
The Blessed Virgin: “Well and good, my little dear, you will return here tomorrow, so you may take to the bishop the sign he has requested. With this he will believe you, and in this regard he will not doubt you nor will he be suspicious of you; and know, my little dear, that I will reward your solicitude and effort and fatigue spent of my behalf. Lo! go now. I will await you here tomorrow.”
FOURTH APPARITION (TUESDAY)
The Blessed Virgin Mary: “What’s there, my son the least? Where are you going?”
Juan Diego: “My Child, the most tender of my daughters, Lady, God grant you are content. How are you this morning? Is your health good, Lady and my Child? I am going to cause you grief. Know, my Child, that a servant of yours is very sick, my uncle. He has contracted the plague, and is near death.
I am hurrying to your house in Mexico to call one of your priests, beloved by our Lord, to hear his confession and absolve him, because, since we were born, we came to guard the work of our death. But if I go, I shall return here soon, so I may go to deliver your message. Lady and my Child, forgive me, be patient with me for the time being. I will not deceive you, the least of my daughters. Tomorrow I will come in all haste.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary: “Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish.
Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. be assured that he is now cured.”
“Climb, my son the least, to the top of the hill; there where you saw me and I gave you orders, you will find different flowers. Cut them, gather them, assemble them, then come and bring them before my presence.”
“My son the least, this diversity of roses is the proof and the sign which you will take to the bishop. You will tell him in my name that he will see in them my wish and that he will have to comply to it.
You are my ambassador, most worthy of all confidence. Rigorously I command you that only before the presence of the bishop will you unfold your mantle and disclose what you are carrying. You will relate all and well; you will tell that I ordered you to climb to the hilltop, to go and cut flowers; and all that you saw and admired, so you can induce the prelate to give his support, with the aim that a temple be built and erected as I have asked.”
Miracles and Signs
The tilma was made from cactus fibres and as such should have turned into dust after approximately twenty years. Instead it has survived and been on diplay to the faithful for nearly 500 years despite being exposed to the smoke of candles throughout the centuries. Infrared spectroscopy has confirmed the integrity of the image.
The image on the tilma is composed of pigments that have not been identified by chemical analysis as being the product of animal, vegetable, or mineral dye. No undersketch has been identified below the painting.
Examination of the eyes of the image by photographers and ophtamalogists has suggested that the reflections of Juan Diego, the bishop, and the interpeter can be distinguished.
Additionally, the apparitions and the resulting tilma contributed in no small way to the Christianization of Mexico with several million Aztecs converting to Christianity in the ensuing years.
Symbolism
The 470-year-old image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is more than simply a picture. It contains
symbols -- in a sense, hieroglyphics, or a story in pictures -- that reveal part of the message the Blessed Mother brought through Juan Diego to the Indians of Mexico and to all the people of the Americas. But the symbols had a special meaning to the Indians, who because of their culture could decipher the code in the Image.
1. Eyes
The eyes of the image are looking down, a postion of humility, revealing that, as great as she is, she is not a god. Indian gods never looked down; they looked straight ahead.
2. Face
The woman's face shows great compassion. The Indians felt that the face was the window of the inner person, a means by which one could read who a person was -- the way a person would act. A good woman to the Indians was one whose femininity showed in her face. The head of the woman in the image shows her with dark skin and dark hair like that of the Indians.
3. Hands
Her hands are not poised in the traditional Western style of prayer, but in an Indian manner of offering, indicating that something is being offered, that something is to come from her.
4. Maternity Band
The maternity band around the woman's waist was the sign of a pregnant woman, a mother who is about to give birth, it was a sign to the Indians that someone is yet to come.
5. Stars
The stars on the mantle are a sign that a new civilization, or era, is beginning. The Indian tradition recognized the end and the beginning of different eras throughout the ages, and the destruction of a particular civilization or era was always accompanied by a comet, or a body of stars.
6. Sun Rays
The rays of sun in the image recalled for the Indians that the sun played a key role in their civilization. But the woman in the image is greater than even the sun. She hides the sun, and only the rays come forth. She hides the sun but does not extinguish it.
7. Mantle
The predominant color in the image's mantle is turquoise, the blue-green color reserved for the great god Omecihuatl. Although the Indians had many "intermediary gods." Omecihuatl was considered the supreme god. It was a mother-father god who sometimes was represented as a man and sometimes as a woman. It was a source of unity for everything that exists.
8. Moon
The woman is standing on the moon, indicating that she is greater than the god of night, the moon god.
9. Angel
The angel at the bottom of the image was seen by the Indians as an "intermediary god" carrying in a new era, the beginning of a new civilization. One era was at an end -- had died -- and a new one was beginning, was being born.
Star Pattern
On December 22, 1981, at the Observatory Laplace Mexico City, Father Mario Rojas and Dr. Juan Hernández Illescas, a medical doctor and amateur astronomer, performed an astronomical study of the Image and analyzed the stellar arrangement that appear in the Mantle of Our Lady. They surprisingly discovered that the stars stunningly and accurately map out the various constellations of the Mexican sky. Even more remarkable is the "star map" on the mantle is in the reverse (the cardinal axis rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise): providing a view of the constellations from beyond them, as would be seen looking through them towards the earth. The constellations are consistent with what astronomers believe was in the sky above Mexico City on the day the apparition occurred - in the winter-morning solstice of December 12, 1531, Saturday, at 10:26AM.
Our Lady's cloak has 46 stars: 22 on her right side, and 24 on her left side. These 46 stars are the most brilliant stars that surround the horizon of the Mexican Valley which have been identified. The main constellations of the Northern sky can be seen on the right of the mantle. On the left, the Southern ones which can be seen from the Tepeyac in winter at dawn. The East is situated in the upper part and the West in the lower part. The Mantle is opened and there are other groups of stars which are not marked in the Image, but they are present in the sky. The Boreal Crown is located above the Virgin's head; Virgo is on her chest, in the region of her hands. Leo on Her womb, precisely above the sign of Nahui Ollin, with his main star Regulo, the small king. Gemini, the twins, is found in the region of the knees and Orion is located where the Angel is.
Additions and Embellishments
Excerpted from Exploring the Miraculous (OSV):
On May 7, 1979, Philip Serna Callahan, an accomplished biologist who has written fourteen books and two hundred scientific papers, was invited by the rector of the shrine, Msgr. Enrique Salazar, to conduct infrared photographic tests on the tilma. Infrared photography allows the scientist to obtain “historical data of the historical derivation, the method of rendition and the validity of documents and paintings.” Between 9 p.m. and midnight, he took forty exposures, from a distance and close up, and concluded that the original image had been substantially embellished over the years.The first additions were the moon and the tassel, followed by the gold and black decorations, the angel, and the fold in robe, the sunburst, and the background.The elements that were found to be original are the red robe, the blue mantle, the face, and the hands. Callahan noted:
In terms of this infrared study, there is no way to explain either the kind of color pigments, or the maintenance of color luminosity and brightness over the centuries. When consideration is given to the fact that there is no under drawing, sizing or over varnish, and the weave of the fabric itself is utilized to give the portrait depth, no explanation of the portrait is possible by infrared tech- niques. It is remarkable that after more than four centuries there is no fading or cracking of the original figure on any portion of the agave tilma, which should have deteriorated centuries ago. (Philip Serna Callahan, The Tilma under Infra-Red Radiation, CARA Studies on Popular Devotion, vol. 2, Guadalupan Studies, no. 3 (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 1981).
Visionary St. 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, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City.
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.
Church Approval
In 1555 In the Provincial Counsel, the second archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar, formulated canons that indirectly approved the apparitions.
A formal inquiry and investigation was conducted by the Church from February 18 to March 22, 1666 and again by Archbishop Lanziego y Eguilaz in 1723.
Juan Diego was beatified on May 6, 1990 and
canonized by Pope John Paul II
on July 31, 2002.
His feast day is December 9th.
Pope John Paul II, during his third visit to the sanctuary on March 25, 1999, declares the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent.
The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12th.
SOURCE:
MiracleHunter.com