Crisis: Persecuted Christians

December 9 

Saint Juan Diego 

     Our Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 at least three times.

     St. Juan’s given name was Talking Eagle.  He was a member of the Chichimeca nation, one of the more culturally advanced indigenous peoples of what is now Mexico.  St. Juan and his people lived in and around the area that has now become Mexico City.  St. Juan was a leader of his people, and may have been involved in the area’s textile industry.

     A leader, but now his people were poor.  The nation had had a strong empire and an advanced culture.  They’d been a proud people.  But their world had seemed to come to an end.  Now their military might was largely gone, their exchange of goods far and wide was a shadow of the past, and their culture’s greatness had shriveled.  Hopelessness and suicide were prevalent, especially among youths.  What the people still did have was their religion, centered at the pyramids, on the top of which their priests practiced human sacrifice multiple times every day.  The sacrifices were a means to try to appease the Sun, their highest god.  As a culture they dared not stop, for without human blood offered daily, the Sun would refuse to rise.  This left them in dread fear of the anger of their highest god, and therefore the anger of their other gods as well.          

     The leading Catholic in Mexico was a Spanish Franciscan bishop named Fra Zummaraga. He and his missionary priests tirelessly preached the Good News to the people.  However, their work was greatly hindered by some other, predatory Spaniards.  The bishop and his missionaries bravely risked a great deal—including their lives—to protect the people.  But the behavior of some (not all) of the Conquistadores was blocking conversions.

     Yet a few of the people did embrace Christ.  Among these was Juan Diego.  He lived with his uncle in a small home, a few hours’ walk from the Catholic cathedral.  Both Juan Diego and his uncle were devout.

     One morning in December 1531, Juan set out as usual before sunrise to walk to Mass.  His uncle stayed home that day because he was ill.  On the way, the road passed a hill known as Tepeyac, which was holy ground to the non-Catholics because once an ancient temple had stood there. 

    

     As Juan Diego passed, he heard a woman's voice calling his name in his native dialect.  He turned and saw a stunningly beautiful young woman, radiating love and compassion, yet with a regal bearing, and wearing the clothing of a queen of Juan's people, clothing covered with traditional picture-writing showing that she was Queen of Heaven and Earth.  Her face had the features of a person who didn't exist then but does now: a person whose descent was a combination of Spanish and Chichimeca.  She was clearly pregnant, but the color of her top was that of a virgin.  She wore a cross at her neck.

     She identified herself as the Ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God.  Now her feast day is December 12 under her title of Our Lady of Guadeloupe.

     After Mary appeared to Juan, he lived in a small hut near the Catholic chapel which Mary requested that the Bishop build on Tepeyac Hill.  There Juan cared for the chapel, and for the first pilgrims who came to see the miraculous image that had appeared on Juan’s cloak.  These people were part of the largest mass-conversion in the history of the church.  By the thousands they came to pray to Jesus through Mary.  I'll write more about this miraculous image later this week, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe.  

     Those who came were moved by Juan's holiness.  For three centuries, and sometimes today parents have blessed their children by saying, “May God make you like Juan Diego.”