The Symbolism of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the three most famous Marian apparitions. Within a decade of Mary's appearance to Juan Diego and her miraculous image on his tilma, nine million souls converted to the Catholic faith. It is one of the great events in the history of the evangelization. Millions of people today make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe each year.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is loaded with specific meaning for the indigenous population.

Mary's eyes are cast down in the image. The humility of her expression contrasts with portrayals of Aztec deities, who would invariably look directly at the viewer with a gaze meant to inspire submission. Mary's downward glance reveals that she is not God. She is the humble servant of God.

Mary wears her hair down as was traditional for unmarried indigenous women. Her hair style signifies her virginity.

Mary's complexion is that of a mestizo, a person of indigenous and Spanish heritage. Mary is the mother of all believers. She desires that we be united as disciples of her Son, as children of the living God.

The turquoise of Mary's cloak was reserved by the Aztecs for their creation god, Omecihuatl. Mary comes from heaven to visit us.

Mary is praying. Her hands are joined together, not in a manner used by Europeans of that time to pray, but in the way an indigenous person would hold her hands to offer something. Mary is offering the world her son.

The band around Mary's waist was used by pregnant women in the indigenous culture. Mary is pregnant, and taken with her hair style, the band signifies the virgin birth of Jesus.

The moon that Mary stands on, and the rays of the sun behind her, evoke the imagery of the Book of Revelation:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth (Revelation 12:1-2). 

But the sun and moon also had deep significance for the Native population. The sun god Huitzilopochtli was the highest deity in the Aztec religion. Mary does not stand under the sun; rather, she stands in front of it with the sun shining around her, placing her in front of the sun in the order of creation. The moon god was also a significant deity for the Aztecs. Mary stands on the moon, showing her above the power that ruled over the night.

The Aztecs believed that changes in the stars or night sky (such as the appearance of a comet) were a cosmic sign of one era ending and a new one beginning. The stars on Mary's mantle would have been such a sign for the native peoples. The fall of the Aztec empire and conquest of the Spanish were an abrupt change for the Native Americans. What did these signs mean? Had their gods abandoned them? Confusion and despair were widespread, and the often harsh treatment of the indigenous peoples by the Spanish made it extremely difficult for missionaries to win converts. Mary came to reveal the God of love to the native peoples; to show them that, despite all of their hardships, the one true God saw them, and loved them, and was offering salvation to them. And the native peoples saw the miraculous image of Mary and they came to believe.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a powerful example of the universal message of salvation through Jesus Christ, delivered to a particular people at a particular time and place in a manner that spoke to them concretely through their culture; and notably, was delivered not to a king or a ruler but to a lowly peasant. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the star of the New Evangelization, reminding us to deliver the Good News here and now to those we meet, not bending to the culture but working through the culture to reveal the love of God to all.

Sources: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson and Msgr. Eduardo Chavez is an excellent, concise book on the apparition, its signifcance for the indigenous population, and its implications for modern evangelization. Its appendix includes the Nican Mopohua, the earliest written account of the miracle, written by Antonio Valeriano sometime before the death of Juan Diego in 1548. The oldest known copy of the Nican Mopohua is housed at the New York Public Library. See also the articles about Our Lady of Guadalupe at miraclehunter.com, catholiceducation.org, and aleteia.org.