Elisabeth Scoggin

Post 1

Who is Our Lady of Guadalupe?

Going to a Catholic High School I heard the Lady of Guadalupe mentioned at many masses, but I did not fully understand who she was or why we were praying to her. Even going to theology class we never discussed her fully. Perhaps the Father who was teaching assumed we already knew who she was, or expected us to know. For years now I have assumed she was some kind of Saint. Now through my research I will find out who she really is and what she stands for.

As many other people doing research, I turned to Google and Yahoo and typed in “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. I found a website called Mary our Mother and read their information. I also looked on Catholic Online. I read and gathered information from two articles from Catholic online. One was Saint’s & Angles and the other was the background information of Lady of Guadalupe. Although these articles are from the same website, each had different, interesting and important information. Another website I looked at was called Sancta.org. Lastly, I found some research on The Crossroads Initiative.

            In December, 1531, it was Juan Diego who first saw the Lady of Guadalupe. Juan became a widower at the age of 55 and was a devout Catholic.  Going his usual route on a hill at Tepeyac, he saw “A beautiful girl with tan complexion and bathed in the golden beams of the sun” (Mary your mother). She spoke to him in his native language telling him that she was the Virgin Mary. “I am the Virgin Mary, Mother of the one true God, of Him who gives life” (Mary your mother). She told him to build a temple on that hill so that others may come to know Jesus. Juan Diego tried to follow her orders, but had difficulties doing so. He was not believed by the Bishop and was denied building a church numerous times, and his uncle was ill, almost dying. Not giving up on his mission Juan Diego asked for help from the Virgin Mary.  She told Juan to, “Go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to me” (Catholic online). There he found a full bloom of Castilian roses and carried them back in his tilma (a poncho like cape) to Mary. She sent Juan Diego with the roses as a sign to the Bishop. “This time the Bishop will believe all you tell him” (Catholic online). When Juan Diego arrived in front of the Bishop, he opened the tilma, but no roses fell out. Instead, a picture of the Virgin Mary was as Juan described her was on the tilma.  The Bishop then believed and allowed for a church to be built on the hill. The Virgin Mary got the name of Lady of Guadalupe because she appeared to Juan Diego’s uncle to heal him, she told him, “Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe”. (Catholic Online).

According to Sancta.org, the tilma that Mary appeared to the Bishop on still has her image on it. It is not explainable that, “Something that should have deteriorated in 20 years, shows no sign of decay 478 years later”. People have said that there is so much detail in that picture that even her eyes reflect what was in front of her in 1531. She is thanked and prayed to in masses because of her message of compassion and love and for her, “Universal promise of help and protection to all mankind” (Our Lady of Guadalupe).

Works Cited

“History of Our Lady of Guadalupe” http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/1065/History_of_Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe.html

“Our Lady of Guadalupe” http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=456

“Our Lady of Guadalupe” http://www.catholic.org/about/guadalupe.php

“Our Lady of Guadalupe” http://www.maryourmother.net/Guadalupe.html

“Our Lady of Guadalupe” http://www.sancta.org/intro.html