Guadalupe: a River of Light

Book excerpt: Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico is one of the most popular apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the whole world. Only a few people know that the Virgin Mary appeared to a Spanish shepherd called Gil Cordero several hundred years before appearing to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill. The story of the image that Gil Cordero found buried in Extremadura, Spain harks back to the first century. According to well-attested traditions, the first miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was carved by St. Luke, the author of the Gospel According to St. Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. Famous men, like Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, Alfonso XI of Spain, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531, the name "Our Lady of Guadalupe" already had a long record of miraculous events. This book traces the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the days of St. Luke, then to the apparition of Our Lady on Tepeyac Hill, the entrance in history of the miraculous tilma of St. Juan Diego, and the extraordinary scientific investigations that have left so many scientists baffled, and caused the conversion of one Nobel Prize scientist to Catholicism. Our Lady of Guadalupe has a message for all of us in this generation. Millions have found Christ through her advocation. Hers is perhaps the most astonishing story of our age.