SANCTA MARIA TE QUATLASUPE
Our Lady, Mother of All, Patroness of Life
Fr. Jim Whalen
There is a definite parallel between our own age and that of the Aztec civilization immediately before the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. Now, as then, our society is dominated by godlessness, pagan excesses and disrespect for human life.
The original account of Our Lady of Guadalupe apparitions, The Nican Mopohuya, is still being researched today. It was written in the Nahualtl language by a native Indian convert, christianized Don Antonio Valeriano. Considerable ground breaking and planting of the seeds of faith, seeds of the Gospel, took place before the apparitions. These facts are little known or rarely acknowledged to this day, although they are of considerable importance. Of some significance is the fact that in 1464 the Ruler of the Texoco Kingdom, Nezhualcoytl, and his son, Nezhualpille, had accepted a traditional Toltec Ruler teaching, and rejected the pagan gods and worshiped the True God, who they saw as a superior being with superior intelligence who was responsible for creation. The son revealed to Montezuma, the Emperor of the Aztecs, a dream in which invaders would come from the sea and bring the ‘true religion’ and conquer the Aztec Empire. This coincided with an existing and widely accepted cultural hero legend, Quetzahoatl, who was to return one day and put an end to human sacrificing.
The first two Christian Spanish expeditions to Mexico, in 1517 and 1518, were unsuccessful. The third expedition, led by Captain Hernando Cortes, in 1519, was successful. What was different and significant was that along with the 600 soldiers, 100 sailors, 16 horses and 10 cannons on board ship, was the most powerful cargo imaginable: blessed wooden statues of the Virgin Mary, some being replicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Extramedura, Spain. They were called the Madonnas of Cortes. St Luke is held to be the carver of the original Immaculate Conception statue of Extramedura. Cortes had lived 50 miles from the national shrine. He and his army had a special devotion to her. He wore a large medallion of Our Lady around his neck for protection. Their first battle was fought and won on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation, which they called Our Lady’s Day. The first town established, Our Lady of Victor, was named in her honour. Cortes was definitely on a Christian Mission. The records quote him as saying, “Brothers let us follow the sign of the Cross with true faith and in it we shall conquer”. In one battle, they landed on Good Friday, and after destroying the pyramid temples to the Serpent gods, planted a Cross and a Madonna statue on the highest points on top of each pyramid. Cortes and his army followed a custom of kneeling before battle in front of one of these crosses and praying the Angelus, asking for Mary’s help, and recalling the Annunciation. They also knelt and thanked the Madonna after their battles for their victories, singing the Salve Regina in their evening prayer gatherings, acknowledging her as their protectress. Mass was celebrated on Easter Sunday where a Cross was planted and Mary was enthroned. This bold courageous practice outraged and terrorized the enemy.
Cortes often spoke to the Aztecs, asking them to destroy the false idols and do away with human sacrifices. He was considered by Montezuma, the ruler of the Aztecs, to be Quetzalcoatl, the cultural hero who was to return and put an end to human sacrifice. Neighboring kingdoms, such as Cempoala, asked for Cortes’ help to overcome the Emperor Montezuma as their people were being slaughtered as human sacrifices. After many battles, Cortes arrested Montezuma and captured the main city, Tenochtitlan, (Mexico City). With reinforcements from their new allies, and after smashing the main idol of the feathered Serpent god, they enthroned a Madonna Statue in its place. Temples were demolished and replaced by Catholic Churches. Missionaries spread out in schools and hospitals but conversions at first were few.
Of some significance, was the arrival of ten Franciscan Fathers and two Brothers in 1524, led by Fra Martin, preaching about the ‘True God’ and the arrival of the twelve Dominicans in 1526, who were largely responsible for spreading devotion to Mary. Among them was Fr. Gonzales, who was inspired to preach the Rosary in a new way by displaying the mysteries on canvas in a Rosary Crusade, thus drawing many Indians to conversion.
Blessed Juan Diego and his spouse, Maria Lucia, were among the first baptized in the village of Cuauhtitlan, as was his uncle, Juan Bernardino, of the village of Tolpetlac (1524-28). They were not Aztecs but Chichmecas, who had been followers of the ‘True God’. They attended Mass at the Franciscan Convent in TIaltelolco. Prior Juan Zumarraga was their first Bishop. Juan Diego’s wife died in 1529, so he went to live with his uncle. The official leader at the time was President Guzman, who was cruel to the Aztecs, monks and clergy. He was replaced on the Bishop’s advice and Our Lady was implored in prayer to intervene and stop the insurrection of the native tribes who were fighting for their rights. The records indicate that Bishop Zumarraga secretly asked the Blessed Virgin to send him some Castilian roses, then unknown to Mexico, as a sign that his desperate prayers had been heard (The Wonder of Guadalupe, Francis Johnson, p. 22; Juan Diego, Dr Charles Wahlig, p.77).
On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Saturday, December 9th, 1531, then called the Feast of the Holy Conception of Mary, Juan Diego, 57 years of age, set out to go to Mass, some 14 miles away, at Tlaltelolco. As he came to the summit of the hill of Tepeyac, overlooking Lake Texcoco, he heard a woman’s voice calling him gently and insistently: “Juanito .…Juanito Dieguito”. He climbed to the summit, 130 ft. high, and a woman of overpowering brilliance and beauty faced him with garments that shone like the sun. Mary came to claim the conquest Cortes had made in her name and to respond to the prayers of the Bishop. She told Juanito that she was the Mother of the True God through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things, who is Master of Heaven and Earth. “I ardently desire that a temple (teocalli) be built here, where I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help, and my protection to the people.... Here I will alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes”. She told Juan to go and tell the Bishop of Mexico that she had sent him and that it was her desire to have a temple built there. Juan did as he was told but the Bishop doubted his words and told him to come back at another convenient time. Juan reported back to the Lady who told him to return and inform the Bishop that she was the Mother of God, and to repeat her request. The Bishop listened to his account, questioned him at some length, and asked for some proof that she really was the Mother of God. Juan reported back to the Lady and she said she would give him a sign for the Bishop, on the next day. That evening his uncle took sick, and thinking he was going to die, sent Juan for a priest on the next day. Juan avoided Tepeyac hill as he was embarrassed at not returning to see the Lady as he had promised. Mary came down the hill and asked where he was going. When He told her, she responded: “Listen and be sure that I will protect you. Am I not here, l who am your Mother, and is not my help a refuge? Do not he concerned about your uncle’s illness, for he is not going to die. Be assured he is already well. Is there anything else that you need?”
She then told him to go up the hill where he would find beautiful Castilian roses and he was to pick them. Mary took them and arranged them with her own hands and put them in his cloak, telling him to take this sign to the Bishop. “He will see and recognize my will and must do what I ask”. Juan told the Bishop what had happened, opened his cloak and the roses fell to the floor and upon the tilma was a full self-portrait of the Mother of God, pregnant with child, her small hands joined in prayer. The Bishop accompanied him to Tepeyac the next day. His uncle had been cured and told him the Lady came to him and named herself as ‘Santa Maria Te Quatlasupe’. ‘Ouatlasupe’ meant, to the natives, one who breaks, stamps, and crushes the Serpent. This recalls Gn 3:14-15, “The Lord said to the Serpent she will crush your head”. The Spanish interpreted it as Guadalupe. On December 26, 1531, a small shrine was built and dedicated as Mary wanted, on the hill of Tepeyac, with the installation of our Lady’s gift of her self-portrait. A celebration was held and tribute was paid to Cortes by Bishop Zumarraga who believed that the victory of the Catholic army, under Cortes, over the gods of darkness and death, was necessary before Mary would come to Mexico.
The Blessed Virgin best reveals herself as Patroness of the Unborn in her advocation at Guadalupe. Juan Diego recognized the significance and symbolism contained in the Sacred image and explained it to his fellow countrymen. It was a Divine Codex, a record composed of picture writing. Her pregnancy is recognized by the high position of her sash. Seventy flowers decorate her mantle and robe (fifty-seven in full bloom and thirteen in buds). Only one, the four petaled flower, jasmine, is over her womb, which the natives call the ‘Flower of the Sun’ (Nahui Olin), ‘or Flute Player Flower, a cross shaped flower, a New Sun, the Sun of Justice was to be born. The natives saw it as a sign of access to an experience of the divine for truth. It announced to the natives the truth of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego. It also symbolized plenitude, and represented the four directions. The primary meaning for them was ‘New Life’ (Mamalhuastli). The overall meaning of Mary’s image meant to them ‘Life’ (Xihuitl). The nine large magnolia blossoms, or Heart Flowers (Yolloxochitl), represented the only sacrifice from that time on that would give them life - Jesus Christ on the Cross. Previously the Heart Flowers had been a metaphor for them, of the hearts of their countless sacrificial victims. It also represented the nine volcanoes of Mexico in their appropriate positions. The stars represented those present on Dec 12, 1531, when Juan opened up his tilma (The Winter Solstice).
The aureole, the luminous area surrounding the figure represents supreme power. The moon symbolized perpetual virginity. The clouds represent the symbol of the unseen God. The blue mantle signifies eternity and human immortality. The gold borders signify royal dignity. The red robe signifies martyrdom for the faith. The golden brooch signifies that she is sacred, and protected against profanity. Further research discovered in 1963, an enlarged view of the reflections in the right eye of the Sacred image of Lady of Guadalupe, three images: that of Juan Diego, Juan Gonzales, the interpreter, and Bishop Zumarraga. The 472 year-old Tilma, to this day, is still being researched.
In 1531, Baptism was administered mostly to infants, war orphans and to the dying. By 1538, the trickle of conversions became a river with approximately eight million baptized. One priest alone baptized over one million. In 1575, Our Lady of Guadalupe was recognized in Rome by Pope Gregory XIII. Since then, 26 popes have issued their approval, and Mary has been declared Patroness of Mexico and the Americas. By 1966, over 20 million pilgrims were visiting the shrine annually. In 1975, a new Basilica was built, as the shrine was sinking. It cost $70 million and had a seating capacity of 10 thousand. In 1979 Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to visit the shrine. In 1980 the Queen of Americas’ Guild was formed.
In 1991, two missionary image replicas were given to the U.S. as gifts to spread the devotion to convert millions and to end abortion. Visitations have taken place in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Russia, China, Japan and countless other countries. Plans have been made to bring a missionary image of Our Lady to Ottawa in May, 2004. Priests For Life Canada have offered to help with the Pilgrimage of Faith, whose mission is to bring about conversions, reverence for life, sanctity of the family, solidarity of the Church in the Americas, with the hope of an end to abortion and the culture of death, and a new culture of life and civilization of love through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. +