Our Lady of Guadalupe This article is about the Mexican Marian title. For 1 Name the Spanish Marian title, see Our Lady of Guadalupe, Extremadura. Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spanish: Virgen de Guadalupe), is a title of the Virgin Mary associated with a celebrated pictorial image housed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in México City. Mexican national identity is entwined with that of Guadalupe. Official Catholic accounts state that on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw an apparition of a young girl at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, the girl asked that a church be built at that site in her honor; from her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary. According to the account, Diego told his story to the Spanish Arch- bishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who in- structed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the “lady” for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin healing Juan’s uncle. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. Al- Detail of the face though December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, on the normally barren hilltop. The In the earliest account of the apparition, the Nican Mopo- Virgin arranged these in his peasant cloak or tilma. When hua, written in the Nahuatl language around 1556,[5] Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumárraga the Virgin Mary tells Juan Bernardino, the uncle of on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the Juan Diego, that the image left on the tilma is to be fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.[1] known by the name “the Perfect Virgin, Holy Mary of Guadalupe.”[6] Juan Diego was canonized in 2002, and his tilma (cloak) is displayed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Scholars do not have a consensus as to how the name the most visited Marian shrine in the world.[2] “Guadalupe” was ascribed to the image.[7] Some believe that the Spanish transcribed or transliterated a Nahuatl Pope Leo XIII granted a Canonical Coronation towards name, as the site had long been an important sacred spot. the image on 12 October 1895. The representation of the The second is that the Spanish name Guadalupe, like the Virgin on the tilma is Mexico’s most popular religious and Spanish Our Lady of Guadalupe, Extremadura, is the cultural image, and under this title the Virgin has been ac- original name. claimed as “Queen of Mexico”, “Patroness of the Amer- icas” (1945), “Empress of Latin America”, and “Protec- The first theory to promote a Nahuatl origin was tress of Unborn Children” (the latter two given by Pope that of Luis Becerra Tanco.[7] In his 1675 work Fe- John Paul II in 1999).[3][4] Under this title, she was also licidad de Mexico, Becerra Tanco claimed that Juan proclaimed “Heavenly Patroness of the Philippines" in Bernardino and Juan Diego would not have been able July 1935 by Pope Pius XI both witnessed and signed by to understand the name Guadalupe because the “d” Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, a designation he later rescinded and “g” sounds do not exist in Nahuatl. He pro- in September 1942 upon becoming Pope Pius XII. On posed two Nahuatl alternative names that sound similar 25 March 1966, Pope Paul VI presented a Golden Rose to “Guadalupe”, Tecuatlanopeuh /tekʷatɬaˈnopeʍ/͡ , “she to the sacred image while Pope Francis gifted a second whose origins were in the rocky summit”, and Tecuant- award on 22 November 2013. laxopeuh /tekʷantɬaˈʃopeʍ/͡ , “she who banishes those who devoured us.”[7] 1 2 2 HISTORY • There is no documentation of any other name for the Virgin during the almost 144 years between the ap- parition being recorded in 1531 and Becerra Tanco’s proposed theory in 1675. • Documents written by contemporary Spaniards and Franciscan friars argue that for the name to be changed to a native name, such as Tepeaca or Tepeaquilla, would not make sense if a Nahuatl name were already in use, and suggest the Spanish Guadalupe was the original.[7] 2 History Following the Conquest in 1519–21, the Spanish de- stroyed a temple of the mother goddess Tonantzin at Tepeyac outside Mexico City, and built a chapel dedi- cated to the Virgin on the site. Newly converted Indians continued to come from afar to worship there, often ad- dressing the Virgin Mary as Tonantzin.[9] What is posited as the earliest mention of the image is a deer-skin codex, (Codex Escalada), which was discov- ered in 1995. Some scholars, however, doubt its authen- ticity. There are no Dominican or Augustinian accounts of the Isidro Escamilla. Virgin of Guadalupe, September 1, 1824. Oil Guadalupe story.[10] Although in the story of the appari- on canvas. Brooklyn Museum tion published in the mid-seventeenth century that Fran- ciscan Juan de Zumárraga is a major figure, with Juan Diego presenting him with the flowers from the Virgin. Ondina and Justo Gonzalez suggest that the name is But there is nothing in Zumárraga’s extant writings con- a Spanish version of the Nahuatl term, Coātlaxopeuh firming this. The Franciscans were implacably hostile /koaːtɬaˈʃopeʍ/͡ , meaning “the one who crushes the ser- to the growing popular cult, considering it idolatrous.[11] pent,” and that it may be referring to the feathered serpent The main promoter of the cult was the Dominican Alonso Quetzalcoatl. In addition, Mary was portrayed in Euro- de Montúfar, who succeeded Franciscan Fray Juan de pean art as crushing the serpent of the Garden of Eden.[8] Zumárraga as archbishop of Mexico. In 1556 sermon According to another theory the juxtaposition of Montúfar commended popular devotion to “Our Lady of Guadalupe and a snake may indicate a nexus with the Guadalupe,” referring to a painting on cloth (a tilma) in Aztec goddess of love and fertility, Tonantzin (in Nahuatl the chapel of the Virgin Mary at Tepeyac, where certain “Our Revered Mother”), who also went under the name miracles had occurred. Days later Fray Francisco de Bus- of Coatlícue (“The Serpent Skirt”). This appears to be tamante, head of the Franciscans in New Spain who had borne out by the fact that this goddess had had a tem- custody of the chapel at Tepeyac, delivered a sermon de- ple dedicated to her on the very Tepeyac Hill where Juan nouncing the cult. He expressed concern that the Arch- Diego had his vision, temple which had recently been de- bishop was promoting a superstitious regard for a painting stroyed at the behest of the new Catholic authorities. If by a native artist: so, this would constitute a rather clear case of transmogri- fication, i.e. the transformation of one object of worship “The devotion at the chapel . to which into another, and the insertion of the latter into a new set they have given the name Guadalupe was prej- of religious circumstances. udicial to the Indians because they believed that the image itself worked miracles, contrary The theory promoting the Spanish language origin of the to what the missionary friars had been teach- name claims that: ing them, and because many were disappointed when it did not.”[12] • Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino would have been familiar with the Spanish language “g” and “d” The next day Archbishop Montúfar opened an inquiry sounds since their baptismal names contain those into the matter. The Franciscans repeated their position sounds. that the image encouraged idolatry and superstition, and 2.1 Juan Diego 3 four witnesses testified to Bustamante’s claim that the im- 2.1 Juan Diego age was painted by an Indian (one person testified that Bustamante had said it was painted “yesterday” and an- Main article: Juan Diego other said that Bustamanate had named the Indian Mar- Such accounts of the image increased interest in the peas- cos as the painter.[13] The Dominicans favored allowing the Nahuas to venerate the Virgin of Guadalupe, as sup- ported by the Archbishop. He decided to end the Fran- ciscan custody of the shrine.[14] The shrine of Guadalupe was served by diocesan priests under the authority of the archbishop.[15] In the late 1570s, Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún de- nounced the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe in a personal digression in his General History of the Things of New Spain, in the version known as the Florentine Codex. At this place [Tepeyac], [the Indians] had a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, whom they called Tonantzin, which means Our Mother. There they performed many sacri- fices in honor of this goddess...And now that a church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is built there, they also call her Tonantzin, being motivated by the preachers who called Our Lady, the Mother of God, Tonantzin. It is not known for certain where the beginning of this Tonantzin may have originated, but this we know for cer- tain, that, from its first usage, the word means that ancient Tonantzin. And it is something tha should be remedied, for the correct [native] name of the Mother of God, Holy Mary, is not 18th-century painting of God the Father fashioning the image. Tonantzin, but Dios inantzin. It appears to be a Satanic invention to cloak idolatry under the ant Juan Diego, who had the original vision.