December 17th, 2013

This month, a refresher on the Guadalupe story as Pope Francis prepares to visit her shrine in Mexico.

Many scientists and scholars believe that the image of the Blessed Virgin as she appeared almost 500 years ago in Mexico to Juan Diego is a miraculous image — not something any human artist could have painted. But the miracle is not only that God’s mother appeared in the New World; it's that she appeared as a dark-skinned Aztec princess instead of as a light-skinned European Madonna. And she spoke to Juan Diego in his native language, Nahuatl, not in the language of the Spanish conquerors and missionaries. The message of the Lady was immediately understood by even the simplest person: God and his Mother were close to ordinary people and poor people, and God and his Mother would protect them and care for them.