Our Lady of Guadalupe
About this photograph
- Date created
- Unknown
- License
- This work is believed to be in the public domain. Users are advised to make their own copyright assessment and to understand their rights to fair use.
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for Catholicism, Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe, religious figures, and Virgin of Guadalupe.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Both oral and written tradition tell the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the experience of Juan Diego who was sent to Bishop Zumarraga with the message to build a temple where the image of the Blessed Virgin appeared.
Juan Diego had been on his way to mass in Mexico City when the Virgin appeared to him with directions to seek Bishop Zumarraga. The Bishop ordered Diego be watched and examined; the Bishop later agreed to release Diego that he could go and ask the lady for a sign that she was the mother of the true God. Diego returned to Zumarraga with roses hidden in his tilma, or long cloak worn by Mexican Indians. When he opened his tilma, the roses fell and a life size figure of the Blessed Virgin was glowing on Diego’s tilma.
Today the Virgin of Guadalupe is recognized and honored on 12 December, the day the life size figure appeared on the tilma.
