Juan Diego

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Juan Diego bigraphy, stories - Mexican saint

Juan Diego : biography

July 12, 1474 – May 30, 1548

Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin or Juan Diego (July 12, 1474–May 30, 1548) was a 16th-century indigenous Native American from Mexico who said he saw a Marian apparition in 1531 now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as Virgen de Guadalupe. The apparition has had a significant impact on the spread of the Catholic faith within Mexico. The Catholic Church canonized him in 2002 as its first indigenous American saint.

The reality of Juan Diego’s existence has been questioned by a number of experts on the early religious history of New Spain including Bernardino de Sahagun, Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, Stafford Poole, Louise Burkhart and David Brading, who argue that there is a complete lack of sources about Juan Diego’s existence prior to the publication of the Nican Mopohua a century later, in 1649 (they do not accept the validity of the Codex Escalada as historical evidence).see e.g. Poole 2006 & 2002, Burkhart 2001, Brading 2001 Notwithstanding these doubts, the findings of an interdisciplinary study, by nearly two dozen experts involving a prominent Mexican university and a noted American scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican linguistics and anthropology, all indicated authenticity of the document and 16th century origin.L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, 23 January 2002, page 8.Poole 2006, pp. 132-133

Life

According to the Nican Mopohua, Juan Diego was born in the year 1474 in the calpulli of Tlayacac in Cuautitlán, a small Indian village some 20 km (12 mi) to the north of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). Another source indicated that Juan Diego was born on July 12, 1474.The book "Mexican Legends" or "Leyendas Mexicanas" from author Dr Marco A. Luna (1939) contains various tales including that of Quetzalcoatl, Emperor Moctezuma, Hernan Cortes, Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. As taken from his book (p. 123), Juan Diego’s birth date was said to be an approximation given by descendants of his family as on "the Crocodile Day with the feast of the honored departed/ancestors celebrated in the fourth/fifth year of (Ruler/Lord) Axayacatl" or circa July 12, 1474

His original or birth name was Cuauhtlatoatzin (alternately rendered as Quauhtatoatzin, Guauhtlatoatzin, or Cuatliztactzin), which has been translated as "Talking Eagle" in the Nahuatl language.

Conversion to Catholicism

A farmer, landowner and weaver of mats, he witnessed the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés in 1521, when he was 47 years old. Following the invasion, in 1524, the first 12 Franciscan missionaries arrived in what is now Mexico City.

Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife welcomed the Franciscans in 1524 or 1525 and were among the first to be baptized — he taking the Christian name of Juan Diego; she, Maria Lucia. Later, they moved to Tolpetlac to be closer to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and the Catholic mission that had been set up by the Franciscan friars.

According to his legend, after hearing a sermon On the virtue of chastity, they reportedly decided to live chaste lives . This decision was later cited as a possible reason for which the Virgin Mary chose to appear to Juan Diego . In 1529, a few years after her baptism, Maria Lucia became sick and died. According to Sánchez’ account Juan Diego and his wife had lived in celibacy for their entire lives; this would be extraordinary since he lived the first 47 years of his life according to pre-Columbian indigenous customs that only prescribed celibacy for the highest priesthood. The Nican Mopohua adds the detail about his celibacy ending after his first sermon. Juan Diego found the Virgin Mary when he was 57.

Apparition on Tepeyac Hill

As a widower, Juan Diego walked every Saturday and Sunday to church, and on cold mornings, wore a woven cloth called a tilma, or ayate made with coarse fibers from the maguey cactus, as cotton was only used by the upper class Aztec.

On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he reported the following: As he was walking to church, he heard the sound of birds singing on Tepeyac hill and someone calling his name. He ran up the hill, and there saw a Lady, about fourteen years of age, resembling an Aztec princess in appearance, and surrounded by light. The Lady spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native tongue. She called him Little t,” her little son. He responded by calling her “Xocoyote,” his youngest child. The Lady asked Juan Diego to tell the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumárraga, that she wanted a “teocalli,” a shrine, to be built on the spot where she stood, in her honor, where: