Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City, saw a "Lady from Heaven" in 1531. Declaring herself the Mother of the True God, she gave him the order to have a church constructed on the property by the bishop. As a sign to the bishop, she miraculously imprinted an image of herself on his tilma, a low-quality cactus cloth. After more than 470 years, the tilma still exhibits no signs of deterioration, even though it should have done so in 20 years. It still defies every scientific explanation for how it came to be.
Her eyes on the tilma reflect what was in front of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. The "Nican Mopohua," a 16th-century manuscript written in the Indigenous Nahuatl language, tells the account of the apparitions, her message of love and compassion, and her universal promise of assistance and protection to all mankind.
This apparition is particularly noteworthy since there is evidence to think that Mary appeared in her glorified body at Tepeyac and replaced the roses in Juan Diego's tilma with her real hands.
The list of miracles, healings, and interventions attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe is astounding. With an estimated ten million visitors annually, her basilica in Mexico City is the most frequented Marian shrine worldwide and the world's most visited Catholic cathedral, second only to Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Even now, science is unable to explain the tilma.
The image does not have an underdrawn, scaling, or protective over-varnish. There were no brush strokes visible under a microscope. Due to an unidentified feature of the surface and material used to create it, the image appears to enlarge and change colour. According to Kodak of Mexico, the image is smooth and has the feel of a recent photograph, even though it was created 300 years before photography was invented. Whether captured on camera or with a brush, the image has always eluded precise replication.
In the Virgin's eyes, several pictures are reflected. It is thought to be pictures of Juan Diego, Bishop Juan de Zummaraga, interpreter Juan Gonzales, and others. It is impossible to acquire the same distortion and location of the images on a flat surface as what is created in the normal eye.
On December 12, 1531, the constellation in the sky aligns with the stars on Our Lady's Mantle. Over the years, every scientist who has studied the image of Our Lady has acknowledged that its qualities are so singular and incomprehensible to the human mind that it can only be supernatural.
Our Lady of Guadalupe has been formally honoured by 24 popes. St. John Paul II visited her sanctuary four times: in 1979, during his first apostolic trip outside of Rome as Pope, and in 1990, 1999, and 2002.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is observed on December 12th. In 1999, during his homily at the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was his third visit to the sanctuary, St. John Paul II established December 12th as a liturgical holy day for the entire continent.