Vatican to Canonize Cuauhtlatoahtzin (Juan Diego)

[La Voz de Aztlan]

Vatican to Canonize Cuauhtlatoahtzin (Juan Diego)

Pope John Paul II to visit Tenochtitlan in July

by
Miroslava Flores
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - 1/17/2001 - (ACN)
The Vatican "Il Messaggero" has issued a press
release that Pope Paul II will be in Tenochtitlan
(Mexico City) from July 28th to the 30th to
officially Canonize the now Blessed Juan Diego
whose original Mexica name was Cuauhtlatoahtzin.
Juan Diego was Beatified in April, 1990 by the Pope.
The next and last step is "Sainthood" and this
process will begin as soon as "Canonization" is
accomplished.

The Mexica, Juan Diego, is revered in Mexico
because he was instrumental in unifying indigenous
spiritual beliefs with Christianity. Soon after
Catholic Hernan Cortez and his Spanish soldiers
conquered the great Mexica capital of Tenochtitltan,
there ensued a bloody clash between indigenous
religious beliefs and the Christian Catholic
religion. The apparition of Tecuauhtlacuepeuh
(Virgen de Guadalupe) to Juan Diego in Tepeyac, at
the very place that the Mexicas worshiped the
goddess Tonantzin, had a very powerful unifying
effect between new world religious beliefs and the
old. Tonantzin was the goddess of earth and corn
and the name means “our mother" in Nahuatl, the
Mexica language.

The apparition took place one day in 1531 as Juan
Diego passed the sacred place of Tepeyac. As he
reached Tepeyac, he stopped and stood still,
disbelieving the heavenly fragrance he smelled and
celestial music he heard. Before him shone a
glowing cloud surrounded by rainbows. Then
Tecuauhtlacuepeuh emerged, robed in blue and gold
and rose. She calmed his fears, calling him “little
son,” and urging him to return to the city and
request the bishop to build a shrine to her on the
very place of the fallen goddess Tonantzin.

The bishop did not believe Juan Diego and sent him
away. Ashamed of his failure, Juan avoided Tepeyac,
but Tecuauhtlacuepeuh found him and urged him once
again. It was not until the third time, however,
that she sent proof of her appearance and the
miracle.

She told Juan Diego to pick the Castilian roses,
which do not exist in that climate but were
miraculously growing right in front of him. He
gathered them using his tilma and approached the
church dignitary. Juan Diego unfolded his tilma and
the bishop saw that emblazoned on the front was a
beautiful olive skin lady and the miraculous
blossoms laying at her feet.

The bishop asked Juan Diego who the lady was and he
answered Tecuauhtlacuepeuh which in Nahuatl sounds
like "guadalupe". The bishop associated the lady
with the Muslim Spanish Madonna "Our Lady of
Guadalupe" that was venerated high in the
Estremadura Mountains.

As the Moslems swept through Spain in the 8th
century, a great religious treasure was buried for
safe-keeping in the earth, in the Estremadura
Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our
Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift
of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of
Seville. After the overthrow of Moorish occupation,
the image was uncovered in the year 1326,
subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble
shepherd by the name of Gil. Our Lady's very
special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan
Monastery next to the "Wolf River."

The Moslems, during their Spanish occupation, had
actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf
River is "Guadalupe" (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf).
Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been
known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name
of "Our Lady of Guadalupe."

The bishop named the Mexican Madonna "Our Lady of
Guadalupe." It is interesting that the "crescent"
under the feet of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" is also
the symbol for Islam. Today, "Our Lady of Guadalupe"
is known in Mexico as " La Virgen de Guadalupe" or
"Nuestra Senora La Virgen de Guadalupe" but the
name that she originally gave Cuauhtlatoahtzin or
Juan Diego was Tecuauhtlacuepeuh.

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This article along with beautiful paintings
of  Cuauhtlatoahtzin (Juan Diego) and
Tecuauhtlacuepeuh (La Virgen de Guadalupe)
are published at:
http://www.aztlan.net/juandiego.htm.