OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 44, NO. 17 | DECEMBER 9, 2022
How Juan Diego’s roses blossomed into a global devotion STORY BY JOE BOLLIG
K
ANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Hill of Tepeyac, now in a sprawling suburb of modern Mexico City, was an unremarkable place on the periphery of the colonial capital 500 years ago. It had been a ceremonial hill where various Aztec deities were honored, but that ceased after the Spanish conquest between 1517 and 1521. The years following the conquest were disastrous for the Native peoples: the humiliation of conquest, the destruction of culture and society, slavery, disease and death. Native population
levels plummeted. The Aztec peoples lived in despair. What could inspire them and give them hope? On Dec. 9, 1531, something remarkable happened on that unremarkable Hill of Tepeyac. A Native man, who had converted to Catholicism and taken the name Juan Diego, was passing by the hill on his way to a Franciscan mission when he suddenly encountered the vision of a beautiful woman. She spoke to him in Nahuatl, Juan’s native language, and revealed herself to >> See “OUR LADY” on page 8