Yesterday afternoon, we had a great conference on the Virgin of Guadalupe at the seminary. We recorded it, and I’ll have it up on our Spanish youth ministry website soon.
Here are a few highlights (in English):
- There is no historical evidence that Juan Diego (the first person believed to see the apparition) ever existed.
- The codex that describes the apparition of the virgin was written 117 years after the supposed date of the apparition.
- The convent that the story describes as the place to which Juan Diego was going (El Convento de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco) wasn’t built until 5 years after the supposed apparition.
- Fray Juan de Zumarraga, the first person to witness the apparition, wasn’t even in Mexico in December of 1531. History tells us he was in Spain.
There are many more proofs that the story is a myth and not the truth. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop 80% of all Mexicans from believing in the story. Overall, the conference really helped me deal with some of the parts of the story that I didn’t know before. I hope it was useful for the students who will be facing this in their ministries for many years to come.
Photo: Inside the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City
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