The Maiden Who Brought the Sun to Earth

In the morning twilight of Dec. 9, 1531, a breathtaking chorus of birdsong stopped the Aztec Indian Juan Diego in his tracks as he was rounding the foot of a hill called Tepeyac. The birds’ music so enthralled the fervent convert that he asked himself whether he was in a dream or, perhaps, even in Heaven, for the hill itself seemed to be singing responses to the birds each time their chorus quieted, a miraculous symphony of nature greeting the dawn. But the music ceased, and Juan Diego heard a woman’s voice calling from the hilltop: “Juanito! Juan Dieguito!”

Mystified, he ascended in the half-light to find a beautiful mestiza maiden awaiting him above, her raiment shining like the sun. Even the crag on which she stood radiated light. Perhaps Juan Diego thought of the Woman of Revelation with the moon under her feet — or perhaps he was too captivated even to think, for, according to the Nican Mopohua, the earliest and most authoritative account of the Guadalupe apparitions, the hilltop itself shone “like a rainbow in the mist” while its usual flora — the mesquite trees and cacti and other plants — looked like emeralds, their foliage like fine turquoise, and their branches and thorns like glittering gold. 

The resplendent Maiden wore a black sash above her waist, meaning she had a baby in her womb, while her loose hair proclaimed her virginity — two signs recognizable to any Aztec. Juan Diego prostrated himself before her.

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