Eyes of Our Lady    
   

The Eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe

 		   
       
   
The Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe		    
   

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The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

 

In 1525, four years after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés, an Aztec Indian named Quauhtlatoatzin was baptized by a Franciscan priest who gave him the Christian name, Juan Diego. 

 

Before the Spaniards brought the Church to the  people of “Mexica”, the Aztec and Myan indian populations were, of course, pagan.  The high priests of the Aztec religion offered human sacrifice to their gods. Their principle pagan gods demanding human blood sacrifice were Texcatlipoca and   Huitzilopochtli. Their less-demanding god of sacrifice was Quetzalcoatl, who did not require human blood sacrifice. They also worshipped the goddess Tonantzin, believed to be a manifestation of the Earth Mother, Coatlicue.

As many as 20,000 human  were sacrificed annually to Texcatlipoca.  The hearts of the victims were cut out and laid on the altar atop the Aztec temple, which, in design, were pyramids that rivaled those of Egypt. Many victims were captured warriors, but the murdered  included thousands of  unwanted or conscripted children.  Thousands of children were sequestered for the purposes of slaughter alone.

 On December 9, 1531, on Tepeyac hill, in Guadalupe Hildago, near the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán, (now Mexico City) the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego as a Myan Indian princess.  She was dressed in a cinctured royal maternity robe with an azure-colored middle-Eastern outer mantle and veil.  Her mantle was covered with images of stars.

In this apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary became known as the virgin of Guadalupe because the location of her apparition was Guadalupe Hildago, now in the northeastern section of Mexico City.  The Aztecs called her  “te coatlaxopeuhó”; “she who crushes2 the serpent”.1

 

Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, identified herself as the woman in Genesis, who, according to the traditional translation, “will crush the head of the serpent with her heel.”4 In the Missionary Image portrayed above, one can see that the left leg is slightly elevated and bent at the knee---as if she were about to step on something.  The left moccasin is not showing from under the royal maternity robe; the toe of the right one is  visible.

 

The Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe also shows “grand proportions”, or perfect anatomical placement of joints and limbs. Also by bone measurement, it is revealed that the apparition of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe was 4 feet, 8 inches tall.5  St. Bernadette, at Lourdes in 1858, said that her image of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, was about her height.  Bernadette was 4 feet, 8 inches tall.5

 

In the native language of Náhuatl, The Blessed Virgin Mary asked Juan Diego to go relate to the local bishop her request that a church be built on Tepayac hill.  When she appeared to Juan again, he told her that the bishop did not believe him.  She told him to return to the bishop the following Sunday and repeat her appeal to him a second time.  When the Blessed Virgin appeared to Juan a third time, he told her that the bishop wanted some proof of her apparitions.

 

On December 12th, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan for the fourth and last time.  Juan’s uncle had been seriously ill and he was on his way to summon a priest to give him the last rites of the Church.  He took an out-of-the-way path to try to avoid the most holy Mary so that he could accomplish his mission without interruption...so he thought.  The Blessed Virgin appeared to him anyway and told him not to worry; that his uncle would be cured.  She said to him:

 

“No estoy Yo a qui que soy tu Madre?”

 (“Am I not here who am your Mother?”)

    
         
   

Here is the text of her message to Juan Diego:

    
         
    “Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety, or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need? Do not let the sickness of your uncle worry you because he is not going to die of his sickness sickness. At this very moment, he is cured.1      
       
    As for the sign that the bishop requested, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe told Juan to pick some Castilian roses that were growing nearby.  Now it was winter and the presence of roses in December, especially at that location, was miraculous.  She told Juan to place the roses in his ayate or tilma, a sort of a front and back cape, which was made out of coarse cactus cloth.  She told him to take the roses to the bishop and  not to open his tilma until he was standing before him.    
         
   

So, Juan Diego walked obediently into town and went to the bishop’s residence.  When he was admitted into the presence of Bishop Zumárraga, Juan opened his tilma right in front of him.  The Castilian roses cascaded to the floor between the two men. In amazement, the bishop brought his hands to his face and  fell to his knees; but not at the sight of the roses; he was astounded at the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that had been miraculously imprinted on the front of Juan’s tilma.  It was the same image that appears at the beginning of this story. Our Lady had left a miraculous visual imprint  on Juan's tilma of her apparition to him on on Tepeyac hill in Guadalupe Hildago.

    
         
   

It is important to realize that Our Lady of Guadalupe was appearing---invisibly--- in the room at the same time that Juan opened his tilma in front of Bishop Zumárraga.   Evidence for this is specified in studies of the corneal reflections in the eyes of the imprint of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Juan’s tilma.

    
         
   

More than 475 years have passed since Our Loving Mother appeared to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepayac, in a northeast suburb of what is now Mexico City.  During those centuries and decades, three basilicas have been constructed in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  But the story does not end.  As Jaun’s tilma endures the centuries, the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe will continue until the end of time.

    
         
    The Technical Aspects of the Tilma of Juan Diego    
         
   

The cactus cloth that made up Jaun Diego’s tilma has a useful life span of about ten to twenty years.  After about fifty years the cloth disintegrates---it breaks up into small pieces.  Juan’s tilma continues to hang on display in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  It has survived floods, fires, explosions and other various hazards.

    
         
 

Over the centuries, science has studied Juan’s tilma.  Scientists are always baffled as to how the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was applied to the cactus cloth.  It is simply too rough in texture to paint visual depictions of delicate anatomical structures such as the human eye.

 

In May of 1979, studies by infra-red photography were undertaken by Philip C. Callahan, Ph.D., a research biophysicist at the University of Florida. He ruled out brush strokes, over-painting, varnish, sizing, or even preliminary drawings by an artist in the body of the image. Damage from the 1629 flood was apparent at the edges of the tilma. He concluded that the original image on the tilma has qualities of color and uses the weave of the cloth in such a way that the image could not be the work of human hands.3

 

Scientists eventually discovered that the eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as imprinted miraculously on Jaun’s tilma, contained human shapes reflected on the cornea of each eye.  With the aid of computer technology, some investigators have imaged human figures in the corneal reflections.  For example, some scientists say that there are four or more persons imaged in the corneal reflections of the right eye. 

 

For the following presentation we did not use an imaging computer---but simply outlined the corneal images in Photoshop.  The reason that we claim seeing only two human silhouettes in the corneal reflections is that we only outlined images that were contained within the corneal area of the eye.  The sclera, the white portion of the eye, does not reflect images as does the cornea, which has the dark background of the iris and the pupil to create a mirror effect.
         
   

   
         
   

Above is the photographic print of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we scanned for the following presentation.  It is an extremely high quality fine-grain print that was processed in Mexico City in the 1990s.

 

The following pictures are images of the eyes of the apparition that were miraculously imprinted on the tilma of St. Juan Diego.  Every retouched image will be paired with a technically identical un-retouched image.

    
         
    Following are retouched (top) and un-retouched (bottom) images of the right and left eyes (look at the corneas):    
       
       
         
       
         
   

Following are retouched images of the right cornea:

 

    
         
   

Above. The images are retouched reflections of the right cornea---of Juan Diego and Bishop Zumárraga.  Juan, with his head bent downward, has just opened his tilma and the roses have  cascaded to the floor.  His hat, hanging from his neck by its lanyard, almost obscures his head.

   
         
       
         
    Above, we altered a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing above Juan and the Bishop. As she views the scene below her, it is reflected on her corneas. Juan's hat may be missing from the above painting or it could be hanging by its lanyard lower on his back, but most certainly he would have had a hat to protect him from the scorching Mexican sun and sudden tropical rain showers.    
         
   

Following are the un-retouched images of the right cornea:

    
         
       
         
Above is the un-retouched reflection on the right cornea.  The large area in back of Juan's head could only be his hat, hanging on his neck by its lanyard, as he is facing the bishop with his head looking down at the image on his tilma. Notice the reddish photographic print grains where the roses fell. Also, the bishop seems to have reddish grains on his torso.  Because the reflections of Juan and the Bishop take up almost the entire surface area of the right cornea, we may deduce that the Blessed Virgin was very close to the two men; maybe as little as four feet away.
         
    Following are the retouched images of the left cornea:    
         
       
         
    The above image is the retouched reflection on the left cornea. Notice the different positioning of the figures of the left cornea as from those on the right cornea.  This is due to the stereoscopic effect of one eye being nearer an object than the other eye. Juan and the Bishop were directly in front of, but below, the Blessed Virgin Mary's right eye; as evidenced by each figure being reflected on either side of the pupil. Therefore, Our Lady's right cornea shows a more frontal reflection.  The left cornea shows a reflection on the inferior-lateral aspect, because the Blessed Virgin's left eye was above and further away from the two men.     
         
   

Following are the un-retouched images of the left cornea:

    
         
       
         
    *    *    *    
         
   

Because of the commentaries of previous studies performed on the tilma, something should be said about the black figure (below) appearing on the scans of the right cornea.  Upon gross examination with a magnifying glass, this figure, which appears immediately near the bishop’s back, is most certainly not a reflection of the right cornea, as it appears in front of the eye itself. The mysterious black figure which appears near the bishop’s back was not retouched. There is a spatial difference between the surface of the right cornea and the black figure. This is evident because the resolutions of the black figure and the surface of the right cornea are obviously dissimilar. This is exactly the perspective acquired when using a magnifying glass to grossly examine the photographic print. Possible explanations that have been offered to explain the black figure are: that it is an angel with wings; there are two figures instead of one; it is an artifact which has attached itself to the tilma after the apparition. We maintain that it is not in the interest of qualifying the miraculous authenticity of the tilma to investigate the black figure, because, optically, it is plainly anterior to and separate from, the surface of the right cornea. (un-retouched, below)

    
         
       
         
   

The Constellations

 

There has been a study on Juan Diego’s tilma that concludes that the stars on the mantle of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe are in the exact positions of stellar constellations that were in the skies over Mexico in December of 1531. Following are two images. The first image is the Missionary Image on which the stars on the mantle of the image have been brightened. The second image is a constellation map from a documented source.6  

    
         
   

   
         
   

   
         
   

Conclusion

    
         
   

We agree with the general impressions of previous investigations and observations of the tilma of St. Juan Diego, that, in any age, it would be humanly impossible to construct the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on coarse cactus cloth, let alone the minute figures within the image itself.  A lengthy dissertation would be required to evaluate the discoveries associated with the examination of the actual image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This is beyond the scope of this presentation.  However, after viewing this web page, we are sure that you will agree with us that the image, which appeared in February of 1531 on the tilma of Juan Diego,  is an authentic  miracle that supports the authenticity of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

    
         
   

Technical Data

 		    
   

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in No. 1 above is a JPG image of 56KB.  The images of the eyes were cropped from a scanned BMP image of 45 MB. The scanner resolution for the BMP image  was set, after experimentation for resolution v. file size; at 400 (3400 x 4680).  Exposure automatically read at 4 and gamma read at 2.16. The only manual setting was shadow, at 40.

   		    
   

Footnotes

 		    
   

1http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Faith/11-12-98/Mary.html

2English and Latin translation notes on Genesis 3:15:  "her seed" (semen illius): illius, a bi-gender pronoun, refers to Christ, the seed of Mary; "she shall crush"(ipsa conteret): "ipsa" is feminine because it refers to "the woman" (mulierem), Mary; "ipsus" would be masculine. English: (Gen3:15; Douay-Rheims; Tan) Latin: (Gen3:15; Biblia Sacra Vulgata v.; Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart)  “Always, it is by her humility and by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman (ipsa) crushes the head of Satan.” (Cf. Note on Gen3:15, Douay- Rheims v.; Cf. Liturgy of the Hours.

3 Rengers, Christopher OFM Cap. Mary of the Americas . St. Paul - Alba House, Staten Island, New York, 1989

4See “The Immaculate Conception and Other Truths of Mary” @ www.holyhillcross.com

5Dan Lynch, postulator for the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, The Abundant Life, EWTN.

6 Testoni, Manuela. Our Lady of Guadalupe - History and Meaning of the Apparitions . St. Paul - Alba House, Staten Island,     New York, 2001.

 		    

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