Following up to our post about the Shroud of Turin, neopatron BayouBomber shares these amazing facts about the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
First, some background:
Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared on December 9th, 1531. According to the account, the Virgin Mary told Juan Diego, an Indian convert, to tell Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to build a chapel. Bishop Zumárraga asked Diego for a sign as proof that it was truly the Mother of God. Our Lady instructed Diego to gather some roses in his tilma [popular piety attests that Mary arranged the roses in the tilma herself] and present them to the bishop. As Diego did this, the roses fell to the floor, revealing the miraculous image of Mary as she appeared in real life.
Sounds far-fetched?
Read on …
There is no under-sketch or under-drawing on the image.
Infrared photography has demonstrated that there is no sketching on the image whatsoever. Dr. Philip Callahan, a research biophysicist from the University of Florida explains: “It is inconceivable that an artist in the 16th Century would paint a portrait without first doing a drawing on it.” Making an under-sketch prior to painting a portrait goes back to antiquity. Such an exquisite depiction on textile made from cactus fiber is inexplicable given the lack of sketching.
As if weaving textiles from a cactus wasn’t wondrous enough on its own …
The image has lasted and shows no signs of deterioration.
Juan Diego’s tilma is made of a rough cactus fiber which normally disintegrates in 15 to 30 years. Yet, the image of Guadalupe has remained intact for 484 years without fading or cracking. Moreover, it was subjected to candle smoke for many years, which should have accelerated the process of deterioration.In 1778, a worker accidentally spilled strong nitric acid onto a large portion of the image. To everyone’s astonishment, only slight stains appeared which can still be seen in the upper right side. Additionally, in 1921 a bomb concealed in some flowers was placed on the altar directly under the image. When the bomb detonated, the marble altar rail and windows 150 feet away were shattered, a brass crucifix was twisted out of shape, but the image was left unharmed.
I’d love to know what circumstances could require someone working with strong acid near a world-famous artwork that’s iconic in every sense of the word.
But anyway …
The stars that appear on the image are astronomically correct.
In 1983 Dr. Juan Homero Hernandez and Fr. Mario Rojas Sánchez discovered that the stars on the image correspond precisely to the constellations of the winter sky on December 12th, 1531.
Impressive detail. But not impossible for native tribes known for their expertise in astronomy, right?
But wait. There’s more:
Incredibly, the constellations are shown as viewed from outside the heavens, in other words in reverse. It is as if we have a picture from someone looking at it from outside the universe, it is a snapshot of heaven and earth from the very moment that Juan Diego saw Our Lady.
And now we’re in goose bump-raising territory.
Mary’s eyes are astonishingly life like.
Of all the characteristics of the image, this is perhaps the most astounding. The microscopic likeness of a bearded man was discovered in the pupils of the Virgin; first in 1929, and again in 1951. The bearded man corresponds to contemporaneous pictures of Juan Diego. No human painter could have foreseen putting infinitesimally small images of Juan Diego in the eyes of the Virgin so that later advances in human technology could detect them. Furthermore, it is impossible for any human to have painted the images because they are simply too miniscule to produce.
Jose Aste Tonsmann, a Peruvian ophthalmologist, examined Mary’s eyes at 2,500 times magnification. He was able to identify thirteen individuals in both eyes at different proportions, just as a human eye would reflect an image. It appeared to be the very moment Juan Diego unfurled the tilma before Bishop Zumárraga.
While amazing, this potentially miraculous aspect of the image raises some questions. Like how Juan Diego would be reflected in the image’s eyes while he was unfurling the cloth it was imprinted upon.
Still, not having a ready explanation for that anomaly doesn’t cancel out the inexplicability of the reflections being there in the first place.
And of course, that’s not all.
Dr. Jorge Escalante Padilla a surgical ophthalmologist considers these reflections to belong to the type which have been described by Cherney on the back surface of the cornea and by Watt & Hess at the center of the lens. Such reflections are very difficult to detect. Dr. Escalante also reported the discovery of small veins on both of the eyelids of the image. In the 1970s, a Japanese optician who was examining the eyes fainted. Upon recovering he stated: “The eyes were alive and looking at him.” [Janet Barber, Latest Scientific Findings on the Images in the Eyes, page 90.] Incredibly, when Our Lady’s eyes are exposed to light, the pupils contract. When the light is withdrawn, they return to a dilated state.
Our Lady does seem to have taken an interest in Japan.
Which is fitting, in light of the dire spiritual straits that whole nation is in.
And as for the image being alive …
The image is always 98.6°F; the temperature of the human body.
The sixth miraculous feature concerning the image is its temperature. It is a demonstrable fact that no matter what the surrounding temperature, season, or weather, the image remains at an even 36.5°C or 98.6°F, the normal temperature of the human body. [Janet Barber, The Tilma and Its Miraculous Image.]
I know it’s hot in Mexico, but it’s doubtful that even there, 98.6° is the normal room temperature of cactus fiber.
To be honest, I’d heard the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe before, but this was the first I’d heard of her image’s miraculous features.
Verdict: another icon not made by hands.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
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“I’d love to know what circumstances could require someone working with strong acid near a world-famous artwork that’s iconic in every sense of the word.”
I can’t be sure, of course, but it might’ve been to clean metal. I know that Padre Pio’s order used acid (which I believe was nitric) to clean metal instruments, something that skeptics latch onto to “prove” that Pio was faking his stigmata using said acid.
Using it to clean metal utensils makes sense. Thanks.