{"id":71667,"date":"2025-12-22T16:25:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=71667"},"modified":"2025-12-22T16:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:25:02","slug":"fact-or-fiction-9-popular-myths-about-our-lady-of-guadalupe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/learn\/fact-or-fiction-9-popular-myths-about-our-lady-of-guadalupe\/","title":{"rendered":"Fakt oder Fiktion? 9 popul\u00e4re Mythen \u00fcber Unsere Liebe Frau von Guadalupe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico. \/ Credit: David Ramos\/CNA<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2025 \/ 04:00 am (CNA).<\/p>\n

Almost 500 years after the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe \u2014 whose feast the Church celebrates Dec. 12 \u2014 the image of Our Lady has become the subject of several popular myths and legends, especially in Mexico, where she appeared. <\/p>\n

Father Eduardo Ch\u00e1vez, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mexico, was the postulator for Juan Diego\u2019s canonization and is a renowned expert on the apparitions. He is also director of the Institute for Guadalupan Studies.<\/p>\n

Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner, in 2019, Ch\u00e1vez separated fact from fiction.<\/p>\n

Is it true the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has the same temperature as a human body?<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s logical that marble, stone, wood, and fabric have different temperatures,\u201d he said. The image of the Virgin is formed on \u201ca cloth made out of plant fibers, an agave called \u2018ixotl.\u2019 And it doesn\u2019t have a temperature like a human being would have,\u201d he said, dispelling a common rumor about the image.<\/p>\n

Was the image painted or fabricated by human hands?<\/h2>\n

Ch\u00e1vez said the idea that the image was painted by human hands is \u201csimply and plainly impossible,\u201d because among other important details, St. Juan Diego\u2019s tilma (cloak) \u201cdoesn\u2019t even have any brushstrokes on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s imprinted on there, it\u2019s a print as such,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez also pointed to the miraculous nature of the image, asking: \u201cHow is it possible for it to have lasted despite the fact that acid was accidentally spilled on it in 1784? How is it possible that after a bomb was set off underneath it on Nov. 14, 1921, that nothing happened to it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Do the Virgin\u2019s eyes move?<\/h2>\n

The priest said that on social media \u201cpeople are saying that if you shine a strong light, the eyes dilate and things like that. No such thing. They don\u2019t move, they don\u2019t dilate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez explained that \u201cthey\u2019re misinterpreting something that an ophthalmologist, Enrique Graue, noted, namely that the eyes seem to be human, in the sense that they look like a photo of a human being, with the depth and reflection of a human eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the Virgin of Guadalupe \u201cfloat\u201d on the mantilla?<\/h2>\n

Ch\u00e1vez was blunt: \u201cThe image doesn\u2019t float\u201d; rather, \u201cit\u2019s imprinted on the tilma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNor are there two or three images placed one on top of the other,\u201d as some claim, he explained.<\/p>\n

Is Our Lady of Guadalupe a Catholic adaptation of an Aztec goddess?<\/h2>\n

Some scholars have promoted the idea that the Virgin of Guadalupe is a Catholic adaptation of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue Tonantzin, who is a combination of a woman and serpents, and a symbol of fertility.<\/p>\n

However, Ch\u00e1vez said that Our Lady of Guadalupe is not an adaptation of a goddess and has nothing to do with idolatry.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not called Coatlicue, which would be idolatry; she\u2019s called Tonantzin, which isn\u2019t any kind of idolatry but means \u2018our venerable mother\u2019 and, as the Indigenous affectionately say, \u2018our dearest mother.\u2019 It\u2019s a title; it\u2019s not idolatry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe missionaries of the 16th century would never have made up a costume for a pagan goddess. That\u2019s completely false,\u201d he underscored.<\/p>\n

Is there music hidden in the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe?<\/h2>\n

Based on mathematical analysis, Mexican accountant Fernando Ojeda discovered music embedded in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Ch\u00e1vez explained.<\/p>\n

Viewing the flowers and stars in the image of the Virgin as if they were musical notes, Ojeda outlined and found a melody.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez said that analysts repeated the experiment with copies of paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, \u201cwhere stars and flowers are placed at the painter\u2019s discretion,\u201d but the only thing they produced was \u201cnoise, not harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly with the original does a perfect harmony emerge, with a symphonic arrangement. It is true \u2014 music comes forth from the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe,\u201d he affirmed.<\/p>\n

Was there a light miraculously projected on the womb of the Virgin of Guadalupe?<\/h2>\n

For Ch\u00e1vez, \u201cit\u2019s hard to know if it was a miracle at that time because we don\u2019t know if it was a ray of light that happened to hit upon one of the nearby metal objects, projecting a light on her womb.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do know is that she is the defender of life,\u201d he said, pointing to \u201cthe simple fact that she has a dark ribbon over the womb, which means she\u2019s pregnant and that therefore Jesus Christ Our Lord is in her immaculate womb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can words be seen on the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe?<\/h2>\n

Responding to those who say they can see the word \u201cpeace\u201d on the image, Ch\u00e1vez said: \u201cI don\u2019t see that anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe communicates with glyphs as the Indigenous did. And when it was by words she spoke in N\u00e1huatl through Juan Diego who later translated,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Did Bishop Juan de Zum\u00e1rraga mistreat Juan Diego?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe key, everything, turns on the bishop,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez said, since \u201calthough the Virgin of Guadalupe chose a layman, spoke to a layman, expressed her message to a layman,\u201d the shrine she asked for \u201cwas not going to be done without the authority of the bishop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez said it was instead the servants who treated St. Juan Diego badly when he went to see Bishop\u00a0Juan de Zum\u00e1rraga. \u201cIt was the servants who left him outside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Franciscan bishop \u201cnever treated him badly, on the contrary; he treated him with affection,\u201d as well as with \u201ca lot of respect and much dignity,\u201d Ch\u00e1vez said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner, and published on CNA on Dec. 12, 2019. It has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/43067\/fact-or-fiction-nine-popular-myths-about-our-lady-of-guadalupe<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico. \/ Credit: David Ramos\/CNA ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2025 \/ 04:00 am (CNA). Almost 500 years after the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe \u2014 whose feast the Church celebrates Dec. 12 \u2014 the image of Our Lady has become the subject of [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":72520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-71667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Fact-or-fiction-9-popular-myths-about-Our-Lady-of-Guadalupe.webp?fit=800%2C444&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":71171,"url":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/de\/learn\/mexico-city-cathedral-organizes-guadalupe-night-to-celebrate-our-lady\/","url_meta":{"origin":71667,"position":0},"title":"Mexico City cathedral organizes \u2018Guadalupe Night\u2019 to celebrate Our Lady","author":"Christian Pure Team","date":"Dezember 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. \/ Credit: Salvador alc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Puebla, Mexico, Dec 5, 2025 \/ 06:00 am (CNA). 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