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If you've seen some of my pages on European travels, you'll realise that I'm fascinated by the European images of the Virgin Mary and of various saints, for example those at Mechelen. I work just up the road from (the Catholic) Westminster Cathedral, and it's a nice quiet walk so I sometimes take a break and wander in that direction. As with mainland Europe, there are images and candles galore. I've developed a few favourites, but this year, before the Christmas crib was to be set up in St Paul's Chapel, as well as the advent wreath there was an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She was apparently selected because her traditional depiction echoes the standard quotation on the Advent Prayer cards: "behold, the Virgin is with child and will soon give birth to a son who she will call Emmanuel".
The chapel was suddenly transformed. The image, albeit temporary, provided a perfect backdrop for the wreath and the rack of candles. I had my camera at the office and felt impelled to return with it later and take a picture.
I'd like to thank my colleague Tim, who had borrowed the camera to take pictures for the firm's web-site, and who appears to be able to drive it even further to the edge than I do. I've left it on his settings until I figure out just what the thing is capable of.
| If you came here via a search engine, you may have seen this historical coda in identical words elsewhere. Fret not, I didn't rip it off - that's a pen-name. I did, however, make free use of many other people's writings in order to compile the summary, for which many thanks. |
This virgin image, along with other early ones, is traditionally shown dressed in red and green. Only at the end of the Inquisition, in 1649, was there an edict that artists were to use blue and white, to avoid any connotations of fertility and the Scarlet Woman. The Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared to a devout Nahua Indian Juan Diego in South America in December 1531.
The Virgin appeared to Juan on Tepeyac Hill, an Aztec sacred site. The site was sacred to the local Aztec Moon or Mother Goddess Tonantzin.
Her appearance was seen as a sign of acceptance, telling the newly-converted Christians how to worship her in her own way; a fusion of the two cultures.
Juan Diego was told to ask the local bishop to build a church to the Lady. When the bishop declined, the Virgin told Juan to go and pick roses: Juan filled his cloak ("tilma") with the flowers.
When the tilma was opened in the presence of the bishop, an image of the Lady was imprinted on the lining. So, the rose is one of the symbols of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It's appropriate, too, that the rose was an early symbol of love and of love goddesses.
She is widely revered to this day; her image, dressed in red and green robes and surrounded by roses, appears on T-shirts. Occasionally, I've seen her referred to as "The Patron Saint of the Americas".