Holy Hill
Cross
The Eyes of
Our Lady of Guadalupe
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
On
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. 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 over-the-head poncho
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.
Juan Diego walked obediently into
town and went straight 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.
(It is important to realize that Our
Lady of Guadalupe was appearing---invisibly, of course--- 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.
After leaving the bishop’s residence,
Juan went home and found that his uncle had been cured, just as the Most
Blessed Virgin had said. In the years following the apparition, because of the
graces from God that came through Our Lady of Guadalupe, almost the entire
population of Aztecs and Myans were converted to Christianity.
More than 470 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 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---for over 470
years.
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 tiny and delicate anatomical structures, such as the cornea of the eye.
In May of 1979, studies by infra-red
photography were undertaken by Philip C. Callahan, 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 scanned 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.
Following are retouched (top) and un-retouched (bottom) images of the
right and left eyes (look at the corneas):
2. The above images are the retouched (top) and un-retouched (bottom) reflections on the corneas of both eyes.
Following is the retouched image on the right cornea:
3. The above image is the retouched reflection on the right cornea---of Juan Diego and Bishop Zumárraga. Juan has just opened his tilma. His hat, hanging from his neck by its lanyard, almost obscures his head.
4. Above, Our Lady of Guadalupe is appearing above Juan and the Bishop. As she views the scene below her, it is reflected on her corneas. Juan's hat is missing from the above painting, but most certainly he would have had a hat to protect him from the scorching Mexican sun and sudden tropical rain showers.
Following is the un-retouched image
on the right cornea:
5. Above is the
un-retouched reflection on the right cornea. As in No. 3, above, 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. Digital pixels are not
visible.
Following is the retouched image on the left cornea:
6. 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 (Nos. 3 and 4, above). Therefore, Our Lady's right cornea shows a 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. This is also evident in image No. 2, above. There appears to be another reflection on the medial aspect of the left cornea. If so, we have not identified it with this study.
7. The above image is the un-retouched reflection on the left cornea. Notice the reddish photographic grains at the location of the bishop's torso.
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 a plane in front of the eye itself. Following is the un-retouched scan of the
right cornea:
8. The mysterious black
figure which appears near the bishop’s back was not retouched. It can be seen in
the above scan and in No. 4 scan, above. 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.
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 left image is a constellation map from a documented source.6 The right image is the Missionary Image that has been retouched to enhance the locations of the stars on the mantle of the image:
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 images within the image itself---without the aid of computer technology. A lengthy dissertation would be required to discuss 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 Aspects
The image of Our
Lady of Guadalupe in No. 1 above is a JPG image of 4 MB size. All of the images of the eyes were cropped
from a scanned image identical to No. 1,
except that it is a BMP image of 45 MB. Resolutions obtainable with a JPG image
may not be as crisp as with a BMP image.
After
experimentation,
the scanner
resolution was set 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
4See “The Immaculate Conception and Other Truths of Mary” on this
Web site: 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 .
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