When I was a senior in college, I went on a pilgrimage to the Mexican martyr sites that ended with a visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The entire trip was transformative for me.
The visit to the hills and the basilica where the miraculous tilma (a peasant-type shawl made of flimsy cactus fiber) is stored was definitely the pinnacle of the trip.
The Visitation
In December 1531, the Mother of Jesus appeared to a poor man named Juan Diego. As he was walking in the hills, a pregnant woman appeared to him asking him to take a message to the bishop directing him to build a church there in her honor.
She identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary and was named Guadalupe (meaning “the crusher of serpents”). Juan hesitantly made his way to the bishop’s residence to deliver her message. The bishop demanded evidence before he embarked on such an endeavor; he did not buy Juan’s story.
Simultaneously, Diego’s uncle became gravely ill. He desired to care for him and not be consumed by this mission which may never come to fruition. Diego even avoided the same hills when journeying to his uncle’s house to ensure the lady did not appear again to him.
However, Mary found him anyway. She appeared and told him not to fear; his uncle would have a full recovery. She instructed Juan to pick roses, which were growing on the hillside (a miraculous event itself since it was December in the mountains), and place them inside of his tilma. He was to keep the tilma wrapped up with his arms holding it up around his chest until he was in the presence of the bishop.
Juan made his way through the hillside and waited to see the bishop once again. Upon entering he instructed the bishop and his assistant that he had a sign from the woman. He released his hands from his chest and held the tilma from its top edges. The flower petals fell to the ground, and what remained on the shawl was the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Scientific Mystery
Hearing about the story made me wonder how this could have happened. However, what changed for me was actually seeing the tilma and learning about its miraculous qualities; qualities that have been verified by scientific analysis.
The image has been studied by unbiased scientists down through the ages and several characteristics are unexplainable.
First and foremost, the image has no pigment on the cactus fiber. Usually, when an artist paints on canvas or any surface, there are two fibers that can be detected under a microscope: the original surface and the fibers from the pigment used to make the image visible (paint, ink, etc.).
The tilma has no such fibers. There is no explanation for how the image was placed on its surface. The cactus fibers that the tilma is made of also should have deteriorated after only a few decades. However, it has endured just under 500 years.
According to astronomers, the stars that surround her veil also match the constellation that would have appeared in the sky in December of 1531. Under a microscope, one can also peer into the pupils of Mary’s eyes and see the miraculous image of the instant in which Juan unveiled the image. The bishop and his assistant are visible as if someone took a photograph of that moment in time.
In one study, an astrophysicist even found that the tilma emits a temperature (98.6 degrees) which is the same as the average female body temperature.
All the above-mentioned miraculous details are eye-opening and point to the fact that the appearance of the fabric of Our Lady of Guadalupe is arguably the largest public miracle in history.
Not only are there unexplainable facts about the tilma. There were true human consequences to her appearance. In the decade following her appearance in the 16th century, there were roughly 9 million conversions to Catholicism in Mexico.
This is the largest conversion rate among one nation in such a short period of time. The facts about the tilma are not just interesting, they are life-changing.
He Is Present
For me, it was viewing the tilma in person that put me over the edge. There is something about it not transmittable in words. Something majestic. Something supernatural.
It is proof that God is real and that He is present with His people—guiding them to be convinced of His love in public ways.
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