The Real First Lady

Roses are Red…

It is no secret that God works in mysterious ways, and one of those ways is through the use of Marian apparitions—when Mary appears to either an individual or group of people.

While it is not mandatory for Catholics to believe in the apparitions given they don’t add to public revelation (sacred tradition & scripture), they are recognized as extraordinary graces that can lead souls to Christ.

Furthermore, the main purpose of these apparitions is to call people to repentance, increase hope, encourage prayer, warn about future events, or to bring miraculous healings.

One apparition that incorporates several of these the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe when Mary appeared to a young Native American boy named Juan Diego in 1531.

Mary appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill and gave him a message for Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga: he was to request that a church be built on that hill in her honor.

The boy obeyed her command and relayed the message to the bishop who—to his surprise—is skeptical about the apparition. Though hesitant, the archbishop did not immediately dismiss the young man. Wanting to trust that Juan Diego was sincere, he did what most people would do in this situation: he asked for proof.

Juan Diego returned to the hill and told Mary that the archbishop required evidence to prove he’s not lying. Mary calmly told him to come back to the hill tomorrow and his wishes will be granted.

Meanwhile, Juan Diego’s uncle was battling a serious illness and was on the brink of death. Because of this, Diego took a different route to avoid seeing Mary, hoping to find a priest to administer his last rites.

His thought process was she would inadvertently delay the situation which was, at this point, dire.

Despite taking a different route, Mary still appeared to him and Diego tried to plead his case by explaining that his uncle was gravely ill and needed his help.

Mary reassured him that his uncle had already been healed and to trust her plan. After consoling him, she told him to go back to the hill where he saw a pile of castilian roses.

He used his tilma (cloak) to gather these roses and carried them to the cathedral to give to the archbishop.

When the archbishop asked the boy what the sign was, he simply dropped all of the roses on to the floor.

The archbishop was immediately blown away for two reasons:

1. The Castilian roses were not native to Mexico, as they were only found in Spain.

2. After the roses were dropped and the archbishop expressed his surprise over the appearance of the foreign flowers, he looked up and what he saw surprised him infinitely more; on the tilma was a beautiful image of Our Blessed Mother carrying the infant Jesus in her womb.

Not only did Mary have her typical features of innocence, purity, and beauty, but she also appeared to them with Native American features and attire— typical of Marian apparitions.

After the convincing sign, Zumarraga built the church on Tepeyac Hill and placed the tilma inside of it, where it immediately became an immediate catalyst for conversion of the natives to Christianity.

At the time, the native Aztec religions were nothing less than demonic, as human sacrifice was a major part of the indigenous spiritual life. However, after the apparition and formation of the blessed tilma, there was a massive turning from these religions to Christianity.

Seemingly with the snap of a finger, the natives had their perception of God transform from a blood-thirsty and power-seeking deity to the real God of infinite love and mercy.

Interestingly enough, centuries after the apparition, a group of anti-clerical secularists devised a plot to bomb the church as a way to destroy the image.

The explosion was so loud that it was heard nearly a kilometer away, as it severely damaged the altar, stained glass windows, and crucifix.

However, the tilma was untouched and remained in perfect condition.

The fact that the tilma remained unharmed after the bombing does not even scratch the surface of the list of details that makes this image so special. So let’s go through a list.

1. The agave cactus fiber that composed the tilma typically has a life span of roughly 30 to 60 years before it completely disintegrates. However, the tilma, as you’ve probably guessed, is still in pristine condition until this day.

2. There were some details added to the image like angels surrounding Mary and the moon being under her feet to match the imagery in Revelations; it wasn’t long before these added colors began to decompose. The colors on the original picture of Mary, on the other hand, has seen no decomposition.

3. The colors used on the image are of no known natural pigment, as it is vastly different from any natural pigment that could have possibly been used.

4. Artists usually have to treat a canvas before painting on it to prevent any irregularities or wrinkles appearing that could tarnish the quality of the picture. Conversely, the tilma had no preparation of any kind, whether that be the stretching of the canvas, varnishing, or any other preparation method.

5. After using infrared analysis, there appears to be no under sketching nor brush strokes of any sort.

6. Using an ophthalmoscope displays that although the image is obviously painted on a flat surface, there is depth in Mary’s retina, resembling an actual human retina rather than one that was simply drawn.

7. When magnified, the eyes of the Blessed Virgin show reflections of Juan Diego, Zumarraga, and the other people present during the event.

The combination of all of these factors lead to the clear conclusion that this image can not possibly be of purely human origin.

The apparition not only led to an increase in faith in Mexico where the apparition occurred, but has continuously led people to the faith when learning about the miraculous story.

This is just one of numerous astonishing Marian apparitions, as others like Our Lady of Lourdes or Fatima are indubitably worth a deep dive.

But that’s for another day.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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