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1531 "Lady from Heaven", Tepeyac Northwest of Mexico City
St. Juan Diego
Lady Guadalupe, means to crush the head of serpent, Genesis 3:15--Mary is the conqueror of evil


"I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection"

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Identified herself as the "Mother of the True God" instructed Juan Diego to have the bishop to build a temple on a site and left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth, which should have deteriorated in 20 years but shows no sign of decay 469 years later.

10M visitors per year to this site, largest pilgrimage in Americas.
Juan Diego was canonized in July 31, 2002 by Pope John Paul II


______________ACCOUNT OF the APPARITIONS_______________

During a walk from his home village to Mexico City early on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw a vision of a lady of superhuman granduer , surrounded by light. This event occurred on the slopes of the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in the local language of Nahuatl, the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor. From her words, Juan Diego recognized her as the Virgin Mary. When he told his story to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the bishop asked him to return and ask the lady for a miraculous sign to prove her claim. The Virgin then asked Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill, even though it was winter when no flowers bloomed. There, he found Castilian roses (which were of the Bishop's native home, but not indigenous to Tepeyac). He gathered them, and the Virgin herself re-arranged them in his tilma, or peasant cloak. When Juan Diego presented the roses to Zumárraga, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth of Diego's tilma

A complete story account is recorded at
http://www.sancta.org/nican.html


__________MYSTERIES of the TILT___________

1. The Eyes
Ophthalmologist studies the eyes notice that when the eyes are exposed to the light the retina contracts. when light is withdrawn from it, the eye returns to its dilated state, like a living eye

2. Temperature of Tilma
The temperature comes from its material maguey cactus, and maintains a constant temperature 98.6F. The same temperature as human temperature.

3. Heart Beats
One of the doctors who studies the Tilma put stethoscope below the black band at Mary's waist, he heard a rhythmic beat 115 beats per minute, the same as the heartbeat of a child in a maternal womb.

4. Colors of Tilma
No sign of paint has been discovered on the Tilma. From a distance of 3 - 4 iches from the image, one can see only the maguey cactus fibers of material: the color disappears. Scientific studies have not been able to discover the origin of coloration, nor the way the image was painted. They can not detect vestiges of brush strokes or any known painting technique. NASA scientists confirm painting material does not belong to any known element on this earth.

5. Tilma has NO Colors
When the material was examined under laser, it was shown that there is no coloration on the front or the back of the cloth, and that the colors hover at a distance of 3/10th of a millimeter (0.3mm) or 1/100 inch over the cloth without touching it. The colors actually floats above the surface of the tilma.

6. Life of the Tilma
A rough material of a tilma has a lifespan of no more than 20 -30 years. Several centuries ago, a replica of the image was painted on an identical piece of maguey cloth, and it disintegrated after several decades. Nonetheless, for nearly 500 years of miracle, the cloth with the image of Mary remains as strong as the first day.

7. The Tilma's Self-Generation
In the year 1791, muriatic acid accidentally spilled on the upper right side of the tilma. During the period of 30 days, without any special treatment, the affected fabric re-constructed itself miraculously.

8. Position of the Stars in 1531 Apparition (See slides below)
The stars that appear on the Mantle of Mary reflect the exact configuration and positions that could be seen in the sky of Mexico on the day the miracle happened.

On the RIGHT side of the Virgin's mantle, the southern constellations are indicated:
o At the top are four stars that form part of the Orphiuschus constellation
o Below it to the left, one finds Libria, and to its right, at what seems an arrow point, is the beginning of Scorpio
o In the middle are the constellations of Lupus and to its left, an end point of Hydra
o Further down, one can clearly see the Southern Cross, above it appears the slightly inclined square of the Centaurus constellation

On the LEFT side of the Virgin's mantle one sees the northern constellatios:
o At her shoulder, a fragment of the stars of the Herdman constellation; below it and to the left is the Great Bear. To its right is Berenice's Hair; below it Hunting Dogs; and to its left; the Thuban, which is the brightest star of the Draco constellation.
o Below the two parallel stars (which still form part of the Big Bear), one finds stars from another pair of constellation: the Auriga and at the bottom, three stars of Taurus.
o Thus, in their totality and proper places, the 46 most brilliant stars that can be seen on the horizon of the Valley of Mexico are identified.

9. Tilma Explosion Proof
In 1921, a man concealed a high power bomb in a flower arrangement, and placed it at the feet of the tilma. The explosion destroyed everything around it, except for the tilma

10. The Eyes
Scientists discovered that the eyes of Mary have the three refractive characteristics of a human eye.
See more below.


_______MYSTERIES of the EYES on the TILT_______

1929, Alfonso Marcue, official photographer of the basilica discovered an image of a bearded man under the right eye of the Virgin, 1/3 inch. the same scene is repeated in each eye. He was told that time to keep complete silence about the discovery, which he did.

May 29, 1951, Jose Carlos Salinas Chavez, examining a good photograph of the face, rediscovers the image of what clearly appears to be a bearded man reflected in the right eye of the Virgin, and locates it on the left eye too.

Dr. Rafael Torrija Lavoignet, examined the eyes of the image with an ophthalmoscope in great detail. He observed the apparent human figure in the corneas of both eyes, with the location and distortion of a normal human eye and specially noted a unique appearance of the eyes: they look strangely "alive" when examined. Many ophthalmologists all agree with the conclusions of the ones mentioned above.

1979, when Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann, PhD, Cornell University, while working in IBM scanned at very high resolutions a very good photograph. digitized images of the eyes to eliminate "noise" and enhance them, he reports he made some astonishing discoveries: not only the "human bust" was clearly present in both eyes, but another human figures were seen as reflected in the eyes too.
Dr. Aste Tonsmann published his last studies on the eyes on the tilma in the book "El Secreto de sus Ojos", with complete details and photographs of his work . Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the studies is his conclusion that Our Lady of Guadalupe not only left us her miraculous image as proof of her apparition but some important messages too.

That would be the case with the image of a family in the center of the Virgin's eye, 1/100th inch, in times when families are under serious attack in our modern world. The image of various human figures that seem to constitute a family, including various children and a baby carried in the woman's back as used in the 16th century, appears in the center of the pupil, as shown in this great image of the right eye highlighting the family, generously provided by Dr. Tonsmann.

http://www.sancta.org/
http://www.sancta.org/videos.html
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Images from this site are copied from internet sites only for the purpose of illustrations.

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