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 of Spain.

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 the 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 to note 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" and she is considered La Reina de Mexico (Queen of Mexico) but the name that she originally gave Cuauhtlatoahtzin or Juan Diego was Tecuauhtlacuepeuh which in Nahuatl means "She who comes flying from the 'Region of Light' like an 'Eagle of Fire'."