Our Lady of Guadalupe, Caceres

The 12th of December marks the day that we celebrate the Apparition of Our Lady, to St. Juan Diego in Mexico in the year 1531. It is said that due to that apparition, 8 million pagan Indians turned to Catholicism. It is also said that this was to make up for the 8 million Catholics who had followed Luther into Protestantism.

I bet you’ll be surprised to find out that there is another apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It can be said to be the first, long before Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego. This story takes us all the way back to Apostolic times. I know I was surprised. Here’s how that story goes. It begins with St. Luke.

St. Luke, the Apostle

St. Luke, who is known as the Beloved Physician, must have been a wonderfully talented man. He is credited as having painted the Black Madonnas which still exist to this day. From Wikipedia:

Luke as an artist

Christian tradition, starting from the 8th century, states that he was the first icon painter. He is said to have painted pictures of the Virgin Mary and Child, in particular the Hodegetria image in Constantinople (now lost). Starting from the 11th century a number of painted images were venerated as his autograph works, including for example, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa and Our Lady of Vladimir. He was also said to have painted Saints Peter and Paul, and to have illustrated a gospel book with a full cycle of miniatures.

Late medieval Guilds of St Luke in the cities of Late Medieval Europe, especially Flanders, or the "Accademia di San Luca" (Academy of St. Luke) in Rome—imitated in many other European cities during the 16th century—gathered together and protected painters. The tradition that Luke painted icons of Mary and Jesus has been common, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy. The tradition also has support from the Saint Thomas Christians of India who claim to still have one of the Theotokos icons that St. Luke painted and which St. Thomas brought to India.

I love St. Luke, because it is from his Gospel that we get the wonderful account of the Annunciation and the Visitation. Actually, the entire group of Joyful mysteries of the Rosary are from St. Luke’s Gospel. St. Luke must have been especially beloved of our Lady in order that she would reveal all these mysteries to him. And so, it seems right in character that he would be the author, not only of the Gospel which reveals the most about Our Lady, but also of all the icons and statues that feature Our Lady.

I had no idea that St. Luke was also a Sculptor. And he is credited with also carving the Black Madonna statues, one of which is the Spanish statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe which is in Extremadura, Spain. It wasn’t known by that name, then. It was probably simply known as the Black Madonna. The name Guadalupe came about as a result of the invasion of the Muslims.

How St. Luke’s statue got to Spain

According to this website, St. Luke did not take the statue to Spain personally, he took it to Turkey, where he died and was buried with the statue:

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Guadalupe, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. Cedar statue said buried with Luke in Turkey, moved to Constantinople 300s, taken to Rome by Gregory the Great who then sent it as a gift to the bishop of Seville (500s), ….

How the statue got to Guadalupe, Caceres, Spain

Guadalupe is an Arabic name which goes back to the Arabian invasion of Spain. They were called the Moors and practiced Islam.

Sometime in the 6th century (500’s) Pope St. Gregory the Great sent the statue as a gift to the Bishop of Seville. I’m assuming that means that it went to Seville, Spain. Where it remained until the invasion of the Muslims in the 7th century. At that time, in an effort to prevent the destruction of many beloved religious icons, certain unnamed Priests carried the statue to what is now known as Guadalupe. Where the Priests did such a good job of hiding the statue that no one, not even Catholics could find it. Until one day….

How the statue was found in Guadalupe, Caceres, Spain

Gil Cordero was a herder in Guadalupe. In 1326, while he was looking for a lost cow, Our Lady appeared to him and told him to begin searching for a treasure and when he found it, to build a shrine there. Gil contacted the Church and they began to dig, they discovered a cave and found the statue in perfect condition. In obedience to Our Lady’s request, King Alphonso XI, had a shrine built to our Lady on that spot.

It is at this point that the statue receives the name, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

What Guadalupe means

Everyone seems in agreement that the first part of the Guadalupe, “Guada”, comes from the Arabic “wadi”, meaning valley.

There is considerable controversy over the latter part of the name. Some say that the latter part of the name, “lupe” is from the Latin name for wolves, “lupus”. Whereas, others say it is from the Latin name word “lux” for light. I’d say its probably the former, based upon this explanation:

An etymological dictionary of geographical names listed guad and guadi as Spanish in origin for "river." This in turn originates from the Arabic wad and wady meaning river or valley. A variant spelling of wady is wadi, which the World Book defines as "a gully or ravine through which a stream flows in the rainy season," and says is Arabic for ravine.

Apart from Guadalupe, there are other rivers in Spain that have "Guad" in them, including the the Guadalquivir River (Arabic "Wadi al-Kebir" [kebir means great or large]), and the Guadiana River which forms parts of the border between Spain and Portugal. On a present-day map, the river running near the monastery is shown as the Guadalupejo.

Now let us look at the latter part of the word -lupe, with the aforementioned meanings in Latin: hidden, light and wolf. Latin lateo,ui means "to lie hid," Latin latebra,ae means a hiding-place, Latin latens, entis means "hidden"; Latin for light is "lux, lucis"; and Latin masculine for wolf is lupus (lupa is a "she-wolf").

One of these leaps out at you as the likely answer of the three. It is the wolf. The greater part of -lupe is found in lupus. And that greater part, lup, is the word stem of lupus which gives the word its "wolfness" meaning. If you add an "i" to the stem lup, you get lupi, which renders it a possessive form of the word, meaning "of the wolf." Eventually wolf would become "el lobo" in Spanish but we're talking here about the mother tongue, Latin.

Compare this to lucis, meaning "of light" the genitive or possessive form of lux, added to gaudi. You get guadilucis.

Looking at what we see here, "River of the Wolf" presents the most persuasive case, as to the origin of the name Guadalupe.

That sounds logical to me.

First connection to the Americas

Along comes a young Portuguese entrepeneur named, Christopher Columbus. He tries to get his voyages to the Indies financed by the Portuguese government, but is rejected. So, in 1489, he makes overtures to the Spanish monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Queen Isabella seeks guidance from, guess who? Our Lady of Guadalupe, Caceres. And since she financed the voyage, we can assume that she received the sign she sought. Then, we find that Columbus names his ship, the Santa Maria in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Caceres. He also makes a vow to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine if he returns safely, which he did and he kept his promise. And in 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And now he is known as the man who discovered America.

And that sets us up for Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyac, which God willing, we’ll talk about tomorrow.

Thanks for listening!