Saint of the Month

Saint of the Month: St. Juan Diego - December 9

Many people know Juan Diego as the Mexican Indian who received the vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe in December 1531. But the focus of that story is usually on Our Lady, and not on Juan Diego. In fact, he was not beatified until 1990, and canonization happened less than 20 years ago — on July 31, 2002.

Juan Diego was born in  1474  in the area that is now Mexico City. He was a craftsman and artist and belonged to the Chichimeca people, an Aztec tribe. He was baptized by a Franciscan missionary when he was 50 years old, just a year before his encounter with the Blessed Mother on Tepeyac Hill. On Dec. 9, 1531, he was on his way to Mass when he heard a voice calling to him in Nahuati, the Aztec tongue. When he went to explore, he saw a woman dressed like an Aztec princess. She told Juan Diego that she was the Virgin Mary and asked him to tell the bishop to build a church on that site.

The bishop, however, did not believe Juan Diego’s story and asked for proof. Returning to the hill, Juan Diego found Castilian roses growing in the frozen ground. He gathered them into his tilma, or cloak, and took them to the bishop. But the roses were not the only miracleshown to the  bishop. More amazing was the image of the Virgin Mary that was imprinted inside the cloak — the image now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Spanish bishop saw and believed the story told by the Mexican Indian who had been a Christian for only a year.

But Juan Diego’s story doesn’t end there. Once the church was built as Mary had asked, Juan Diego moved to a small hut next to the chapel where the image was displayed. He lived there until his death 17 years later, caring for the church and talking with the pilgrims who visited the shrine. Juan Diego spent his days in prayer and received Communion three times a week, which was very unusual for that time. When he died, he was buried in the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

About 8 million indigenous people became Christians as a result of Juan Diego’s witness and the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which put a face on what had been the religion of outsiders.