Location: Mount Tepeyac, Mexico City, Mexico
Date: December 9, 1531

Summary: 
Juan Diego, a local Aztec man who was baptized and converted to Christianity 6 years earlier has an encounter with Our Blessed Mother.  She speaks to him in his native tongue asking for him to petition the bishop for a “teocalli” or “sacred little house” to be built atop the mountain which she appeared to him.  When he tells the bishop he doesn’t believe the story. Our Blessed Mother appears to him again asking him to go back to the bishop yet again.  Juan Diego elects to visit his ill uncle instead of petitioning the bishop a second time.  Our Blessed Mother appears to Juan Diego a third time telling him that his Uncle has been cured. She asks him to climb back atop the mountain where she appeared to him to collect roses which are growing there (mid-December).  When Juan Diego presents the roses to the bishop to make him believe, he unfurls his tilma (Aztec outer garment), which has the miraculous image painted on it.

Interesting facts:
-The tilma is made of cactus fibers, which should have naturally degraded within approximately 20 years. 485 years later, it is still very much intact.
-Chemical analysis cannot identify the pigments as being from animal, vegetable or mineral dye, which would have been all that was available during that time.
-Traditionally a painting will be sketched before the pigment is applied.  In 1977, digital infrared imaging revealed there was no such sketching on the tilma.
-Close examination of the left eye of Our Mother in the image reveals a reflection of people.
-Special Aztec/Indian cultural icons/images are interlaced within the image on the tilma.
-In 1981, it was discovered the arrangement of the stars on the image match the arrangement of the stars in the sky over the apparition site on the day and time when it occurred.  Specifically, the arrangement is that of the night sky viewed “from behind” as if you were viewing that area of space looking at Earth.
-The word “Guadalupe” may be a mis-translation from Aztec to Spanish.  Most likely Mary told Juan Diego to call her image “Coatlallope” which means “one who treads on snakes.”

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