On December 9, 1531, when Diego was 57, he had a vision of a lady of captivating beauty - the Virgin Mary. Her robe shone like the sun, beams radiating from Her lit the rocks and all around. The young lady told him smiling: "I am the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of true God giving life to all living things, the Lord of all things, the Lord of the heavens and the earth. I wish you build Me a God's house here where I want to demonstrate and devote all my love, grace, compassion, help and protection to people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all people, all those who love Me, who call Me, and who trust Me. Here I want to hear your cry and your woes in order to alleviate and cure your suffering, your poverty and your misfortune."
   During another vision on December 12, 1531, Diego told the Virgin Mary that he was hurrying to the city to fetch a priest because his uncle was seriously ill. The Virgin Mary replied: "Let there be nothing to worry you, nothing to make you sad, nothing to make your face and heart gloomy. Don't worry because of this illness, nor any other disease or woe or pain. Can't you see me, your Mother, here? Can't you see you are here in my shade, under my protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Aren't you in the folds of my cloak, in my hands? Do you need more than that? Don't let the illness of your uncle trouble you any more, because he is not going to die from it. Right now, in this moment, he has been cured."

   The first bishop in Mexico, after the country was captured by the Spaniards, Franciscan Juan de Zumarraga who led Roman Catholic missions among the Aztecs was once visited by a young baptized Indian Juan Diego. He told the bishop that he had had several visions of the Virgin Mary. He also brought the bishop a message that Mary wanted him to erect a chapel atop a hill. But the bishop asked him to submit a proof. Juan left disheartened and, next day, complained to Mary: "Saint Virgin Mary, the father bishop does not believe me and wants me to bring an evidence of my visions."
   Mary, as a charming lovely maiden, told him: "Go to the Tepeyac hill tomorrow and pick up flowers that you find there. Bring them to the bishop to convince him."
   Early morning next day Diego went to the hill and found there beautiful flowers growing among barren rocks. The flowers were nice red Castialian roses unknown in Mexico. Diego was amazed as it was December and it had been freezing last night. Juan picked up a big bunch of roses and put it into his apron called tilma by the natives. He happily hurried to the bishop's house. When he came to the bishop (in the presence of another bishop Don Sebastian Ramirezy Fuenleal, a new governor of Mexico and interpretor Juan Gonzáles) he opened up his apron and showed everyone the lovely red roses. Everybody shouted with amazement. The amazement, however, multiplied when the bishop and his guests saw the picture of a beautiful young maiden on Juan's tilma. The maiden wore a red dress and a star-studded blue-green cloak. It was a marvelous picture of the Virgin Mary.
   Everyone immediately believed that Juan was telling the truth and they all fell to their knees before the picture. This convinced the bishop to have a chapel built in the appointed place to honor the Virgin Mary. The chapel was later extended into a major temple.

   An account of the picture's origin was written in an Indian language (nahualt) in Latin alphabet, and its Spanish translation by Luis da la Vega was published later in 1649.
   This great event was mentioned also in the Chronicle of the Conquest of New Mexico by historian Bernard Díaz de Castillo.
   In historical records on Tlaxcala, Dr. Bartolache found a text reading: "Year 1531: Juan Diego had a vision of the beloved Virgin of Guadalupe on hill Tepeyaco in Mexico. Year 1548: Juan Diego who had a vision of the beloved Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, has died."
   References to the visions were made also by Don Valeriano in the nahuat language between 1548 and 1554. His book was entitled Nican Mopohua. Don Valeriano was Emperor Montezuma's nephew. He completed studies in Latin and Greek and then become a philosophy professor and a school dean. He was also a judge and the governor of the City of Mexico. Juan Diego was his close friend.
   Thousands of Aztecs thronged to see the likeness of "the white man's Virgin Mary". Thousands fell to their knees before this divine picture.
   Many Mexicans and Spaniars volunteered to work without pay. In two weeks they erected a small chapel atop Tepeyaco and the picture was carried there by a festive procession. Juan Diego took care of the chapel as more and more pilgrims came to see the picture in it. Thousands of copies of the likeness were painted and distributed across Mexico. On the paintings, the history of the miraculous picture was written in nahualt.
   The Aztecs let themselves baptized en mass. Eight million natives were christianized in just seven years. Initially an obstacle to baptism, polygamy was quickly abandoned and the Indians chose a single legitimate wife. Some priests baptized as many as six thousand natives a day. Father Toribio wrote: "In a monastery near Quechlak, I and another priest have baptized 14,200 people in five days."
   Churches, monasteries, hospitals and schools built by missionaries sprang up across Mexico. The University of Mexico (now the biggest university in the world) was established by the Pope and the Spanish king in 1552. Before long, Mexico was sending native Catholic missionaries abroad - to Florida, California and even to faraway Japan where St. Philip from Jesus and his escort died for their faith in 1597.
   Water gushed out from the rock in the place where the Virgin Mary told Diego to pick up the roses (Tepeyac). The water of this spring has been clean and abundant to this day. The ill were cured by drinking the water or bathing in it as was recorded by Englishman Miles Phillips in 1582.
   Juan Diego passed away on May 30, 1548 and bishop Zumarraga followed suit three days later.
   The tradition of the vision of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe has been upheld by millions of Mexicans ever since.
   In a preserved testament from November 15, 1537, Bartolomeo Lopez de Colima wrote: "I wish that a hundred services were held in the house of Our dear Lady of Guadalupe for the peace of my soul."

   For the first hundred years, the image of Our dear Lady of Guadalupe was on display without any protection against the adverse effects of weather, contacts with lips, rosaries and memorabilia.
   A strange thing about the picture is that it has not decayed, although tilma normally does not last longer than twenty years.
   Diego's tilma was made of coarse agave fibres from the plant maguey. It was almost transparent and rough (as sackcloth).
   Prof. Callahan rules out the possibility that a painter would have painted on a tilma made of such a coarse material entirely unsuitable for painting.
   For centuries the picture hung in a chapel the size of a living room, unprotected by a glass pane, in moisture, directly exposed to the smoke of candles burning beneath it. Billions of candles have been burnt there over the years. The candle smoke should have blackened the picture as it did for instance the rock in the Lourdes grotto. The likeness was touched by millions of pious hands and kisses.
   A number of objects, including swords, touched the picture (The rock in the Lourdes cave has been worn away and polished by such touches).
   Yet, the picture has retained its colors. It is now protected by a glass pane which, however, is removed now and then so that believers can touch or kiss it.
   In 1753, Miguel Cabrera observed than on one occasion people touched the image with various objects 500 times.
   A special commission of Mexican painters under Miguel Cabrera reported: "This sacred picture has been created in such a unique and miraculous way that anyone who has at least a minimum knowledge of our art must confirm that the portrait is supernatural. The manner in which the surface of the picture has been made so smooth defies all natural laws and is another piece of evidence of its supernatural origin."
   Having inspected the image, atheist architect Ramirez Vasgues was converted to Catholicism.
   In 1921, a terrorist planted a bomb hidden in flowers beneath the altar. The explosion destroyed another sacred painting and partly also the altar, smashed all windows, but this sacred likeness was not damaged at all.
   In 1971, technicians cleaned the silver frame of the picture. They accidentally overturned a bottle with an acid and a few drops fell on the picture. Yet the likeness was not etched. The acid just left traces as if by drops of water, which soon disappeared. The image is 142 cm tall.
   The figure of the Virgin Mary is 122 cm tall. She has a parting in the middle of her head. She stands on a moon and leans on a winged angel. Beams of light radiate from her.
   The picture has recently been thoroughly inspected by experts such as Richard Kuhn, a Nobel-prize winner for chemistry, who studied the pattern of the painting, or Dr. Callahan and Prof. Jude B. Smith, scientists of NASA laboratories, who investigated the picture photographically and by various kinds of radiation passing through it.
   Prof. Torcusto Luce de Teno summarized the results as follows: "Woven from agave fibres, the fabric contains no conservation substance." (Painters used to protect canvas by a glue coating.)
   The preservation of the fabric and colors for such a long time is inexplicable!
   No pre-drawings, customarily drawn by famous painters, have been revealed by the radiation techniques. The painting was made directly without corrections. No strokes by a paintbrush are discernible! The painting technique used is unknown and cannot be imitated. The origin of the paints is unknown too. The picture contains no traces of paints of vegetable, animal, nor mineral origin (The painting method used is unknown to the whole expert community). The colors are still fresh, untarnished.
   The stars on the Virgin Mary's cloak correspond to star constellations seen over Mexico on bright nights.
   American Coley Taylor notes: "The stars on the cloak are hardly discernible from a short distance, but when watched from a greater distance they clearly shine. Seen from a short distance the garment is green-blue, but from a longer distance it is deep blue. The dress is pale pink when observed from near, and deep pink from a greater distance. The likeness has a normal size when the observer stands near, but optically grows larger as he moves away."

   The strangest thing of all, however, is this: The well-known eye-specialist de Tria Lauoignet inspected one eye on the portrait through an ophthalmoscope and found there a human figure. The eye was then investigated by the most advanced technique used to study satellite imagery. This study was carried out by Mr. Tonsmann. A photography of the eye was digitalized, divided into squares 1 mm2 in size which were magnified 2,500 times and studied. This means that 2,500 light points could be seen on 1 mm2.
   A sitting long-haired Indian can thus be seen in the Virgin Mary's pupil. Next to him sits an elderly hairless man with a white beard and Basque features with a tear falling from his eye. Many identified the old man as the Spanish bishop.
   By his side sits a younger man, supposedly Juan Gonzáles, the bishop's interpretor and secretary. In the middle facing the bishop is a grown up man   sporting a beard and a moustache. He is Indian Juan Diego opening up his tilma with the red roses for the bishop. Further persons discernible in the pupil comprise a black woman with a curly hair, a man and children.
   The figures in the eye are of different sizes, the nearer to the eye they stood, the bigger they are. Some 12 persons can be seen in the eye.
   Laboratory studies of the retina on Mary's right eye have shown that it behaves just like that of a live man (three pictures are formed in a human eye, the so called Purking-Samson's phenomenon). These three pictures can also be seen in Mary's eye. Left of the front picture reflected in the eye liquid of the anterior eye chamber there is another picture in the vitreous humour. The second picture corresponds to the front one and is parallel with it. The third picture can be seen when illuminated under ophthalmoscope. This upside-down picture forms in the eye lens.
   Dr. Lavoignet has observed that when the light from an ophthalmoscope falls on the pupil of the Virgin Mary's eye, the pupil starts shining and seemingly has a concave relief. This reflex cannot form on an even plane, especially opaque one.
   Dr. Javier Torroella Bueno has observed that the contours of the bearded man are reflected not only on the nose side of the right eye, but also on the temple side of the left eye. The extension of the reflected pictures exactly corresponds the pupil's concavity.
   Dr. Wahilig states that the cornea acts as a convex mirror 15 mm in diameter.
   All attempts to make an exact copy of the picture, either by a paintbrush or a camera, were unsuccessful as they failed to copy the original's mysterious colors.
   Prof. Calahan: "It is suspicious when a scientist says something like this. But I must say that the original picture is a miracle."
   Scientists agree that this miniature painting in the pupil is totally inexplicable since no human being is capable of painting such a small picture. It is simply the Vigin Mary's miracle proven by scientific, experimental and laboratory studies.

   In 1545, México City suffered from an outbreak of typhoid and floods. Thirty thousand people drowned. A bishop ordered to move the precious painting from the partly flooded cathedral to his house. The flood ended after long prayers. The Mexican governor sent a message about this miraculous event to Rome and Madrid. In 1736, a horrible epidemic raged throughout Mexico which claimed some 700 thousand lives. It came to an end on April 27, 1737 when Our dear Lady was declared the patron of Mexico (Mexico then included also Cuba, Texas, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Florida).
   During the battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571, victorious captain Andrea Doria had a copy of the picture of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe hung in his cabin. Many believed that this picture and a rosary prayer had played a decisive role in the victory of the Christians.
   In 1560, Pope Pius IV took a copy of the picture into his private residence and handed out the medals "Our dear Lady of Guadalupe". In 1709 the likeness was relocated to a new basilica. The peace treaty between the USA and Mexico in February 1848 was signed in the Guadalupe shrine.
   The Virgin Mary of Guadalupe was crowned on October 2, 1895. The coronation was attended by forty bishops, hundreds of priests and an incalculable number of the faithful. In 1910, Pope Pius X declared the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe the patron of the whole Latin America.
   Churches across the globe were dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe - two in Rome, one in Madrid, and many others elsewhere. Pilgrimage centres with altars and statues honoring the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe sprang up everywhere - in London, Stockholm, Addis Abeba, Nagasaki and Vienna.
   Pope Pius XI crowned a copy of the picture in 1933. In a radioed message to Mexico, Pope Pius XII called Mary the Queen of the whole America, and Pope John XXIII referred to her as the Mother of both Americas.
   Pope Paul VI granted the gracious image a golden rose.
   Twenty-five popes issued decrees on the sacred likeness of Guadalupe.

   Guadalupe is now the biggest Marian pilgrimage place in the world. It is visited by some twenty million pilgrims a year. By comparison, Lourdes attracts 5 million.
   On January 27, 1979 John Paul II called in the shrine and honored the picture there. He wrote a prayer to Our dear Lady of Guadalupe to commemorate his visit. An excerpt of the prayer reads: "The blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the beautiful love, save our families so that they are always united and bless the upbringing of our children. You, our hope, look at us with mercy. Always teach us to go to Jesus. Help us to get up again when we fall, so that we can return to Him, confessing our errors and sins in the sacrament of penance which gives peace to the soul.
   Please, give us great love for all sacraments that are a presage and that have been left here by Your Son. Then we, the Holy Mother, with God's calmness in our conscience, with our hearts freed from evil and hatred, will be able to bring true joy and peace which we receive from Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ who will rule forever with God Father and Holy Spirit. Amen."
   The Holy Father says: In Guadalupe, people honor the picture of the Virgin Mary not painted by human hand. Before this truly miraculous likeness, pilgrims recall the words that Mary told Juan Diego: "I, your Mother, am here. You are under my protection. I am your saviour. You are in my heart." And the Holy Father reminds that "The Virgin Mary still keeps telling these words to each of us. The authenticity of these words is proven by the fast and massive spread of the Gospels in Central and South America as far as the Philippine archipelago. The Virgin Mary helps the cause of Christianization by inviting everyone to enter a confidential association with Jesus thereby approaching God."
   These words of the Holy Father guarantee that our reverence to the Virgin Mary has been approved by the church authorities.

   The old basilica built on a marshy ground began to subside. A new basilica was completed on October 12, 1976 at a cost of US$ 70 million. It has ten thousand seats. Interestingly, the subsidence of old basilica came to an end as soon as the new one was completed.