by Barbara Schoeneberger

Created on: January 13, 2010

The Momentous Encounter

Tepeyac hill was a dry place, strewn with boulders, and adorned with cactus, mesquite bushes and other small plants. In the chilly pre-dawn starlight of December 9th, 1531, which in those years was the feast of the Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego, was hurrying on his usual 9 mile trip to Tlalatelolco to attend catechism class and Holy Mass.  As he approached Tepeyac hill, dawn was breaking. Startled, he heard the music of singing birds, beautiful beyond words.  Then a woman’s voice called to him in his native Nahuatl: “Juanito…Juan Dieguito,” in tones of gentleness and respect.  Climbing up towards the voice, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with a Lady of overpowering beauty whose radiance suffused the surrounding area with light and colors inexpressibly beautiful.

From the beginning the beautiful Lady announced who she was: “Know for certain, dearest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God, through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things, who is Master of Heaven and Earth.  I ardently desire a temple built here for me where I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people.  I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who live united in the land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me.  Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes…” [1]

Significance of Tepeyac Hill

Quetzelcoatl, primary god of the Aztecs represented as a stone serpent, had to be appeased by live human sacrifice, sometimes thousands in one day.  Tonantzin, the Mother God of the Aztecs, was portrayed as a head composed of snake’s heads and with writhing snakes as a garment. Tepeyac hill was the place of her crumbled temple.  The Virgin's request for a temple of honor on the site of the previous pagan temple was in perfect harmony with the Nahuatl name she announced: "te coatlaxopeuh", meaning, she who" will crush, stamp out, abolish or eradicate the stone serpent." (Gen. 3:15) [2]

Through Aztec Eyes and Judeo-Christian Tradition

When all became known concerning the appearance, the Aztecs understood that God had intervened directly, lovingly and most powerfully in their lives.  Where once death ruled the people, now many sought baptism

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