Juan Diego

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Colonial portrait of Juan Diego

Juan Diego , Cuauhtlatoatzin , also called Cuauhtlatohuac in other sources (* around 1474 in Cuauhtlithan / Cuautlitlán near Tenochtitlán , today's Mexico City ; † May 30, 1548 ), is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church . He was best known for his accounts of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Guadalupe in 1531. The apparition played an essential role in the spread of Catholicism in Latin America. He was canonized as the first Native American in 2002 .

Life

Statue of Juan Diego, Church of San Juan Bautista, Coyoacan

According to legend, on December 9, 1531, he had an apparition of the Virgin Mary on Mount Tepeyac . This appeared to him as an indigenous woman and gave him the order in his language to build a chapel on the mountain in her honor. The bishop, the Franciscan Father Juan de Zumárraga , did not believe him. The hill on which Mary appeared to Juan Diego was a sanctuary in pre-Hispanic times where the Aztecs worshiped Tonantzin , the maternal goddess of grain. The bishop thought that Juan Diego intended to continue cultivating the old cults under the mantle of Christianity and was skeptical.

At another apparition at the same place three days later, Juan Diego received the order from Maria to pick roses at a certain point on the mountain and bring them to the bishop as evidence. He found the promised roses, which were blooming despite the snow, and put them in his coat. When he poured them out in front of the bishop, the image of the Virgin Mary was visible in his cloak where he had worn the flowers. The bishop recognized it as the image of the “Virgin of Guadalupe ”, which is venerated in Spain. He gave permission to build the chapel and allowed Juan Diego to live near it as a hermit for the rest of his life. A church was then built on the site of the apparition. John Paul II beatified Juan Diego on his travels to Mexico in 1990 and canonized in 2002.

Basilica from the inside

The apparition of Mary " Our Lady of Guadalupe " was an important event for the missionary work of Latin America , because Christianity was previously felt to be alien among the natives. Afterwards the religion was accepted more quickly by the locals because the Blessed Mother had shown herself as an indigenous woman in her appearance.

criticism

Against the authenticity of the tradition, it is argued that Bishop Juan de Zumárraga does not refer to the apparition in his rich correspondence and other writings. The same is true of the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún , in whose rich literary work a reference would be expected. Names of Indians from two Christian first names that could be compared with Juan Diego do not appear until the end of the 16th century. The Codex Escalada or Codex 1548 , which appeared shortly before the end of the canonization and has not yet been adequately published , which consists of a sheet with drawings, short texts in Náhuatl and Spanish and the signature of Bernardino de Sahagún, is not accepted as authentic by historians because the corresponding templates are verifiable.

Several historians (Stafford Poole, Louise Burkhart and David Brading) have therefore questioned whether Juan Diego is a historical person. They point out the fact that prior to the publication of the Nican Mopohua there is no written reference to his person. The text mentioned appeared a century after Diego's death, in 1649. However, an interdisciplinary research group consisting of over 20 researchers found in 2002 that Diego's person was historically documented in the 16th century.

Adoration

The veneration of the common indigenous peoples whose courage helped Latin America become Catholic has always been included in the worship of Our Lady of Guadalupe . Also because of Diego's low social position, the apparition of Mary from Guadalupe became a popular Mexican national symbol and also politically occupied. When Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla took an initiative for Mexican independence in 1810 , the call to struggle was: death to the Spaniards - long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!

The story of Juan Diego was told in the Mexican silent film Tepeyac (El milagro de Tepeyac) from 1917.

literature

  • Paul Badde: Mary of Guadalupe. How the appearance of the Virgin wrote world history. Ullstein, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-550-07581-2 .
  • Virgil Elizondo: Guadalupe. Mother of a New Creation. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 1997.
  • Jacques Lafaye: Quetzacoatl and Guadalupe. The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness, 1531-1813. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1976 (with a foreword by Octavio Paz).
  • Xavier Noguez: Documentos guadalupanos, a studio sobre las fuentes de información tempranas en torno a las mariofanías en el Tepeyac. El Coleguo Mexiquense, Toluca 1993, ISBN 968-16-4206-6 .
  • Stafford Poole: Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531-1797. University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1995.
  • Didier van Cauwelaert: The apparition. Structure, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-7466-2330-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kath.net : ... Just bend your knees, be amazed and pray November 24, 2006
  2. ^ Paul Badde: Maria von Guadalupe. How the appearance of the Virgin wrote world history . Ullstein, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-550-07581-2
  3. ↑ The Holy See : Apostolic Journey to Toronto, Guatemala City, and Mexico City July 30, 2002
  4. ↑ Alberto Peralta de Legarreta: El Códice 1548, crítica de una supuesta fuente del siglo xvi . Archive link ( Memento from February 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Stafford Poole: Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531-1797 . University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1995; Louise Burkhart: Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature . IMS Monograph Series Publication No. 13. Albany, NY; Distributed by University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-942041-21-6 .
  6. ↑ L'Osservatore Romano, weekly English edition, January 23, 2002, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Klaus Schreiner : Maria: Life, Legends, Symbols , Munich 2003, p. 61.
  8. ↑ See the review by Felix Hinz

Web links

Commons : Juan Diego  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Diego, Juan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saint of the Roman Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH around 1474
PLACE OF BIRTH Cuauhtlithan / Cuautlitlán near Tenochtitlán , today Mexico City
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1548