THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN

Patangui, Adrian Montoya

[Information presented herein were based on Francis Johnston’s book The Wonder of Guadalupe, The Story of the Miraculous Image of the Blessed Virgin in Mexico.]

PART 2b. SHE WHO CRUSHES THE SERPENT. The relation between Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Immaculate Conception in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15.

News about the extraordinary event which astonished everybody in the Bishop’s house spread like wildfire. The next morning, the sacred image was carried on a procession throughout the city. After consultation, Zumarraga decided to build a small chapel to shelter the sacred image for public veneration. While the image was venerated at Tlaltelolco, Juan Diego returned to his humble village of Tolpetlac, and escorted with a guard of honor, a hero’s welcome received him home.

Juan Diego was overjoyed to find his uncle well and gain strength. Juan Bernardino embraced his nephew with amazement, he nodded at him as if he already knew what happened. He told Juan Diego that after he set off to call a priest, the room where he laid was suddenly filled with white, dazzling light, and a beautiful Lady appeared to him. Juan Bernardino felt strength throughout his body and found himself recovered from fever. The Lady told the old man that she has sent his nephew to the Bishop with her image imprinted on his tilma. Our Lady revealed to him the title by which she wished to be known.

The interpreter who rendered the words of the title for the Bishop thought that Juan Bernardino was trying to say: “The Ever Virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe.” Zumarraga was astounded, for the name Guadalupe had no connection with Mexico whatsoever, but was the name of a famous shrine in Estremadura, Spain. There is no way for the natives to know a thing about the shrine and use it at least for this purpose. This shrine has a long history on how it acquired the name Guadalupe (literally, Wolf River, probably because this part of Spain had been infested with wolves). Predictably, Spanish missionaries in Mexico spread the devotion of Virgen de Guadalupe from Spain. There is a big possibility that this title gave misunderstanding regarding the name of the apparition to Juan Diego which his uncle Juan Bernardino gave to the Bishop. The word “Guadalupe” cannot be spelt or pronounced in Nahuatl, the native Aztec language which Our Lady used to communicate with Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino, and it was the only tongue known to Juan Bernardino. The letters D and G did not exist in Nahuatl.

Therefore, the inescapable conclusion is that Our Lady identified herself with a name in Nahuatl language that was phonetically similar to the Spanish word Guadalupe. The name was adopted accordingly for the new shrine because of the Bishop’s understanding that the native was trying to pronounce the word Guadalupe. Despite this case, the natives instead used names of their own. They did not normally use the Spanish term Guadalupe. Instead, they used the title Tonantzin and other pseudo-pagan names for the shrine.

Scholars had already put an end to this matter which involved the corruption of the true title of Our Lady’s apparition to Juan Diego. They have concluded that Our Lady had actually used the phonetically similar Aztec word Tequantlaxopeuh (pronounced Tequetalopeh) which means “Who saves us from the Devourer.” At that time, the name Devourer signified both Satan and the terrible pagan god. In other words, Our Lady technically identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, the One who would crush the head of Satan as stated in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15. Despite this parallelism of truths, the title Immaculate Conception was never substituted for that of Guadalupe.

A study in 1895, conducted by Professor D. Mariano Jacabo Rojas, undertook an intensive scientific study of the word Guadalupe. His conclusion was that Our lady used the term “Coatlaxopeuh” which means “she who breaks, stamps, or crushes the serpent”—an attribution of the Immaculate Conception. We must also note that at the time of the apparitions, the Franciscans were preparing their converts for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In their sermon they used to refer to her as “she who crushes the serpent’s head,” knowing that this would make a deep impression on them since it also signified the crushing of their frightful, chief serpent god Quetzalcoatl.

According to the late Helen Behrens, the Aztec “te coatlaxopeuh” can be broken down into: “te” meaning “stone”; “coa” meaning “serpent”; “tla” an article meaning “the”; while “xopeuh” means “crush” or “stamp”—the Entirely Perfect Virgin, holy Mary, who will crush, stamp out, abolish, or eradicate the stone serpent—this was the title Our Lady wanted her image to be called.

Annually, 20,000 human sacrifices are offered to the dreaded feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, the most monstrous of all the original Aztec deities. If the interpretation of the Nahuatl term Coatlaxopeuh was correct, then it is logical to say that Our Lady’s apparition to Saint Juan Diego denotes the demolition of the inhumane Aztec culture of human sacrifice. This implies that the Blessed Virgin would crush all the Aztec gods, behind whom, of course, was Satan. This recalls the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 in which God spoke to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your seed, and her Seed. She will crush your head, and you shall bruise her heal.” In the book of Revelation, particularly in chapters 12 and 20, the serpent was specifically identified as Satan, the ancient serpent. And the Blessed Virgin’s triumph over the serpent is precisely what emerged. As a direct result of the apparitions, there ensued the greatest mass conversion to Christianity in history.