Case file · Apparition / miracle
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego, an Indigenous convert, and once to his uncle near Mexico City in December 1531, leaving her image on his cloak.
1531 CE · 19.48, -99.12 · status: disputed
The account
The cloak (tilmahtli) is enshrined in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The image was canonically crowned in 1895, and Juan Diego was later canonized.
The sceptical view
Joe Nickell notes that the main narrative source was published in 1649, so the story as told may date from then. In 1996 the abbot of the Basilica, Guillermo Schulenburg, resigned after being quoted calling Juan Diego a symbol rather than a real person.
Connections in the atlas
- Virgin of Guadalupe in a Watsonville oak
- Juan Diego
- The Nican Mopohua
- ▶ When the Virgin appeared
- The Great Mother
- The Lord of Chalma in the cave
- ▶ How Christianity spread
- Las Lajas apparition
- Our Lady of Coromoto
- Our Lady of Aparecida
- La Llorona
- Fátima 'Miracle of the Sun'