GUADELOUPE: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (Ch:1)
The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes led an expedition of 500 men to present-day Veracruz, Mexico on 22/04/1519, capturing the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II. But the actual birth of Mexico may be considered as 12/12/1531, the official day appointed by the Catholic Church when Our Lady of Guadeloupe manifested to a humble Aztec peasant named Juan Diego in Guadeloupe with a message to his people and Mesoamerica as a whole. A message of mercy and love, conversion and hope, blessings for all people, and salvation from atheism to Christianity.
A people highly spiritual because of their countless natural catastrophes, the Aztecs imposed human sacrifices through blood rituals that included their wives, children, orphans, widows, slaves, and strangers. Their priests ate the raw hearts of their victims and oftentimes clothed themselves in their raw skins as well. This was the world the Christian Spaniards discovered when they arrived in Mexico.
Our Lady chose this particular people and their country for Her Message of Salvation during Her Divine pregnancy 12 days before Her delivery (12 days before Christmas). This was Her unique apparition throughout history as the pregnant Mother of God, and selecting the poorest of the poor, an indigenous Aztec Indian recently converted to Christianity. She sent this meek and humble farmer to his bishop, requesting that a shrine be built in Her Honor in Guadeloupe, but the bishop sent him away.
She reappeared to him a second time with the same request, encouraging him to go more confidently, assuring him of Her presence accompanying him. This time the bishop said that if the message were true, then God would provide him with a sign. Our Lady reappeared to him a third time in the thick of winter. This time sending him to the top of Tepeyac Hill (Mexico City) for the sign. Upon arrival, he found beautiful red Castilian (Spanish) roses, the subject of legends and non-existent in this part of the world. When he picked them up to place them in his traditional cloak (Tilma), She interceded, gently rearranging them and sending him for the third time to the bishop. Upon meeting the Bishop, he unfurled his Tilma with the beautiful fresh roses, and to everyone’s surprise, Mary’s image was miraculously imprinted on the cloak, confirming that She had indeed accompanied him all along. This Tilma with its image remains preserved in the Basilica of Guadeloupe to this day — over 500 years later.
She told Juan Diego that as the Mother of the Divine, She is the Mother of all People, their Consolatrix and Mediatrix, responding to anyone who called upon Her and that Her shrine shall be the refuge for healing, and strength to all pilgrims from near and far.
Hidden in the Tilma are 2 codices, one which was immediately understood by the Aztec people of the time, and another initially misinterpreted by the Spanish colonizers at the time. Nevertheless, both stories fuse in perfect harmony with the same message of revelation and salvation amongst two opposing people, forging unity among them through the Divine Love in Her Holy womb — sharing the core message of the Bible through the Gospels.
1. By referring to Herself as the Lady of Guadeloupe. In Aztec, this meant “the One who crushes the serpent”. The Spaniards had initially thought that it referred to their grand monastery of Guadalupe (by the Guadalupe River in Caceres), Spain, where an early statue of Hers was discovered and brought them salvation from the Moorish invaders around the 8th century AD.
2. Mary chose to appear as a Mestiza (a mixed Spanish and Aztec race), the lowest class of people scorned and frowned upon by society as a whole, and considered “untouchables”.
3. Yet, Her mantle was a blue-green color which represented royalty to the Aztecs. The Spaniards interpreted this as the Star of the Sea, Stella Maris, Who had comforted Christians for centuries through their modest fishermen and voyagers by sea.
4. The ermine lining of the blue-green cloak sealed Her royalty.
5. The 4-petal jasmine flower in the shape of a Cross above her womb is called the Queen Crux Flower (the Jerusalem Cross, the Maltese Cross, or the Silene Chalcedonic), referred to by the Aztecs as the Solar Flower, their symbol of Divinity at the center of the cosmic order. Located just above Her womb, it confirmed that She bore this Divinity within Her womb.
6. The other 4-petaled flowers represented the Fifth Age to the Aztecs, the Age of Peace,
thereby declaring that it had just begun.
7. The Magnolia Heart Flower represented the human heart, and the pains of all the human hearts they had sacrificed to their gods. Now, transforming their hearts of stone into Living hearts and from earthly corruption to Divine immortality.
8. Similar to Aztec tradition, the central parting of Her hair affirmed Our Lady’s virginity.
9. The black sash above Her womb and beneath her clasped hands was their tradition-affirming pregnancy.
10. The position of Her prayerful hands above Her sash, points to the Cross on the brooch of Her neck pendant, the symbol of Christianity the Spaniards bore, and the Church they represented through their missionaries.
11. Her position standing in front of the sun and over the crescent moon confirmed to the Aztecs that she was greater than these two symbols they worshipped as gods. Whereas the Christians, saw Her as described in the Book of Revelation, clothed with the sun with a crown of stars over Her Head, and the moon at Her Feet.
12. Her posture of humility, inclined head, and clasped hands above the womb indicated submission in prayer for the One greater than Her — in Her womb.
13. The expression of Her eyes is that of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
14. At Her feet is an angel with the wings of an eagle (the highest heaven), holding Her mantle with one hand, and Her robe with the other, explaining that Her Child is both from Heaven and Earth.
With all the relatable symbolism represented above, 10 million Aztecs rushed to convert to Christianity within a matter of months. They found faith and strength in Her at a time of despair when their gods were not responding to their supplications, as they were being ravaged through repeated epidemics of Smallpox (brought in by the Spanish invaders) and their Cocoliztli plague. They had no resistance against the unknown Smallpox which decimated almost 8 million Aztecs (over one-third) of their original population of 22 million.
This conversion was considered Divine Intervention the compensation of the 10 million Catholics lost to the great Christian schism of the Reformation in Europe within the same period.
The millions of pilgrims over the past 5 centuries confirm that the view of the physical image of the Tilma is so enigmatic, that it draws them close and leaves them with an indelible impression.
Thank you for your precious time in reading this article.
In the next and last chapter (2) of this article, you will learn more about:
A- Why Our Lady chose Mexico as the 1st country in the Americas for Her apparitions.
B- The conditions the Tilma was exposed to since 1785 AD, the studies carried out by atheist scientists, and their conclusions.
C- The promises brought to the people of Mexico are relevant to the entire world in the face of the current ongoing natural disasters, and what is yet to come.
I would like to hear from you your opinions in the Comments on my Medium page.
Sammy RNAJ
WhatsApp +96170499352
Medium — @srn.abuj
LinkedIn — /Sammy-rnaj-5847b8287
Substack — sammyrnaj.substack.com
Facebook — /profile.id=100094246617227
Quora — /Sammy-RNAJ 1
