When telling the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Franciscans feel blessed that one of our own was present at the heart of the miracle. It was Franciscan Bishop Juan de Zumarraga who was the first to see the image of the lovely, beautiful Virgin Mary on Juan Diego’s tilma. The Castilian-like roses that only flower in the Bishop’s homeland were an added joy that the Mother of God personally placed into the tilma to signal something out of the ordinary was happening here.
However, there is also another important Franciscan connection to be made in this Marian sign from God. The Saturday morning, December 9, 1531 apparition was documented by a student of the Franciscan Santa Cruz College in Tlatelolco. The scholar in his own right was Antonio Valeriano. One of his professors was the missionary Friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Antonio used Spanish lettering popular at the time to tell the story. In reporter-like style, his account was based on a face-to-face contact with Juan Diego. Valeriano’s words in narrative and dialogue form are filled with poetic nuances common to the Indian people dear to Juan’s heart. Here’s a brief sample of his text.
Juan Diego: “The way he answered me, I could clearly see that he thinks your house that you want them to build for you here, maybe I’m only making it up, or that maybe it is not from your lips.
I beg you, my Lady, Queen, my little girl, to have one of the nobles who are held in esteem, one who is known, respected, honored, (have him) carry, take your dear breath, your dear word so that he will be believed.
Because I am really (just) a man from the country, I am a (porter’s) rope I am a back frame, a tail, a wing, a man of no importance: I myself need to be led, carried on someone’s back, that place you are sending me to is a place where I’m not used to going to or spending any time in, my little Virgin, my Youngest Daughter, my Lady, Little girl….”
We close with some of Valeriano’s words attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In Mary’s words, “Do whatever He tells you (us).” In St. Francis words, “‘I have done what is mine (to do); may Christ teach you what is yours!’
“But it is very necessary that you, personally, go and plead, that my wish, my will, become a reality, be carried out through your intercession.
And I beg you, my youngest and dearest son and I order you strictly to go again tomorrow to see the Bishop.
And in my name make him know, make him hear my wish, my will so that he will bring into being, he will build my house of God that I am asking him for.
And carefully tell him again how I personally, the ever Virgin Holy Mary, I, who am the Mother of God, am sending you.”
Note: Excerpted from an English translation of Luis Lasso de la Vega’s 1649 copy of the the Nican Mopohua written in Nahuatl by the Indian scholar Antonio Valeriano in the mid-16th century.
(Photo: St. Francis of Assisi window, Frisco, Texas) Our Lady of Guadalupe, intercede for us in our many intentions.
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