1531 – Our Lady of Guadalupe

Fun Facts

• The image cannot be explained by science. It shows no sign of deterioration after 450 years!  The tilma or cloak of Juan Diego on which the image of Our Lady has been imprinted, is a coarse fabric made from the threads of the maguey cactus. This fiber disintegrates within 20-60 years.
• Microscopic examination by NASA revealed that there were no brush strokes.
• According to Kodak of Mexico, the image is smooth and feels like a modern day photograph.  (Produced 300 years before the invention of photography.)
• Several images can be seen reflected in the eyes of the Virgin. In 1956, Rafael Torrija Lavoignet studied the lenses of Mary’s eyes through an opthalmoscope, Bishop Juan de Zummaraga, Juan Gonzales-the interpreter and others.
• The distortion and place of the images are identical to what is produced in the normal eye, which is impossible to obtain on a flat surface.

Miracles Associated with the Apparition

1. COMPOSITION OF THE TILMA: Biodegradable cactus fiber (with a durability period of three months) is the Tilma.  Saint Juan Diego’s work Tilma was God’s blank canvas almost 500 years ago; when he painted the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Just so it sinks in, the Tilma is comprised of a substance that decomposes within three months of being used as thread – and is literally bomb proof for the last 500 years.

3. MARY’S RACE/SKIN COLOR:  Mary’s face appears to be a different shade depending on the angle the observer is looking from.  God’s paint has opalescence – like a beetle’s shell.  Also, God painted one tan hand and one white hand to symbolize his desire for the Aztecs and Spanish to unite in Christ.  

4. HER LIVING EYES:  The eyes are “living.” They reflect three overlapping images as our eyes see – and, as God saw us in this event that changed the North American continent.  With the microscopic images, you can make out the images of everyone in the room the exact moment that Saint Juan Diego opened his Tilma and the roses rolled out.  Eduardo Chavez is the scientist who spent 40 years on studying the images on the lenses of the eyes.

5. STAR CONFIGURATION: When looking down on the Tilma, as if you were in Heaven, the position of the stars dates December 12, 1531.  2. When the sequence of stars is placed on a written musical scale, it makes a beautiful song on the piano.

6. GLOWING WOMB: A number of  sources is that the womb under her maternity belt glowed when abortion was made legal without consequence in Mexico.

7. INDESTRUCTIBLE:  On two different occasions, attempts were made at destroying the Tilma.  In the first, a Freemason set a bomb under the flower bouquet placed under the Tilma in the shrine, and the Tilma didn’t change at all.  The cross in front of the Tilma had bent backwards, and everything else was destroyed.  2. Someone threw acid on the Tilma, and it repaired itself.

Testimonials

What was her message?

She introduced herself as our mother who consoles us (like Juan Diego), who heals us (like the miracle of his uncle’s healing).  She requested that we build a church, “Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City, Mexico at the site of the apparition where she and her Son can listen to prayers and answer them.  Mary tells us of her intercessory power in Heaven.  

Who did Mary visit?

Saint Juan Diego, and his dying uncle – (and all of God’s Christian children!)

How did the witness describe Mary’s appearance?

Our Lady’s appearance was a symbol of  the last book in the Bible, Revelations 12:1: “Clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Guadalupe means “the one who crushed the serpent!”

Videos:

The exact placement of the constellations are on the Tilma 

The stars on the tilma mark the exact time of day when Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego 

Stars on Tilma are placed from God’s perspective, looking down from Heaven 

Music discovered on the Tilma from Our Lady of Guadalupe 

Miracles:

1. Miraculous healing of Juan Diego’s dying uncle
2. The tilma is “living”: the human traits of the 500-old image are miraculous: the ability to heal itself from acts of desecration: bombing on November 14, 1921, “the eyes are living” – with live images reflecting from the lenses in the eyes. The images in the eyes reflect the exact moment when Saint Juan Diego revealed the image of Our Lady on the tilma.
3. The image of our lady is a photograph of the moment of revelation. The image appeared to come from roses given by Mary when they were scooped up by his Tilma to carry to Bishop Zumárraga. The paint material does not exist on Earth.

Who approved?

1531 by Bishop Zimarraga when he personally witnessed the miracle of the live painting of the image from the Book of Revelations on Juan Diego’s biodegradable tilma.

1895 Pope Leo XIII  

Saint Pope John Paul II

Pope Francis