Robert Todd Carroll
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Myth Versus Miracle - Debate Rages Over Likely Canonization
[of Juan Diego] by Kevin Sullivan, February 5, 2002
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Our Lady of Watsonville
Our Lady of Watsonville is a foot-high image of the Virgin Mary seen in the bark of an
oak tree in Watsonville, California. Anita Contreras was the first to
see Our Lady of Watsonville. On June 17, 1993, the Virgin appeared while Contreras knelt
to pray for her children. Since then, thousands of pilgrims have flocked to the site,
hoping for a miracle.
Mary is venerated by many Roman Catholics as the Mother of God.
Mexicans have been especially fond of her since her apparent apparition in 1531 to Cuauhtlatoatzin, a Nahuan peasant and Christian convert who took on the name of Juan Diego. (Watsonville is about 62% Mexican-American.)
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a bit more dramatic than that of Our Lady of Watsonville. Legend
has it that Juan Diego was
a bit of an ascetic mystic, who frequently walked barefoot the 14 miles from his village
to church in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). It was on these walks that he had
several visions of the Virgin Mary. He allegedly brought to the bishop his
cloak on which an image of the Virgin had been painted (Our Lady of
Guadalupe, shown here, is the centerpiece of the Basilica of the Virgin of
Guadalupe in Mexico City). (Legend has it that the image was accompanied by
roses, which were out of season and which skeptics had asked Juan to have
the Virgin produce as proof of his claim that she had
appeared to him several times.) Many believe that the painting is of
heavenly origin. Skeptics believe it was done by a human artist and passed
off as being of miraculous origin in order to win more converts to
Christianity.
The name "Guadalupe" is Spanish and is a bit mysterious, since there was no
town or shrine near Cuauhtitlan, Juan's village, by that name when the legend began. It is
thought that the word derives from a Nahuatl word, coatlaxopeuh, which supposedly
sounds like Guadalupe in Spanish and means something like "one who crushes the
serpent." (The serpent can be identified with Satan or with the Aztec serpent-god
Quetzalcoatl.) It is also possible that the legend has Juan saying that the Virgin was to
be called Our Lady of Guadalupe because the one who invented it was Spanish. The creator
of the name may have been intrigued by a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Estremadura,
Spain. In any case, it is easy to understand how a mystical Indian could become enchanted
with Christianity. Not only did the new religion abound in stories of the miraculous, but
the Spanish Christians had put an end to the Aztec empire. The Aztecs had conquered the
Nahuatl and perhaps had even sacrificed a few of Juan's relatives to the hungry gods.
In 1556, a formal investigation found that the image
was painted by an Aztec artist, "Marcos" [Cipas de Aquino].*
Examinations of the image have found good evidence that the image was
painted on the cloth. For example:
...infrared photographs show that the hands have been
modified, and close-up photography shows that pigment has been applied to
the highlight areas of the face sufficiently heavily so as to obscure the
texture of the cloth. There is also obvious cracking and flaking of paint
all along a vertical seam, and the infrared photos reveal in the robe's fold
what appear to be sketch lines, suggesting that an artist roughed out the
figure before painting it. Portrait artist Glenn Taylor has pointed out that
the part in the Virgin's hair is off-center; that her eyes, including the
irises, have outlines, as they often do in paintings, but not in nature, and
that these outlines appear to have been done with a brush; and that much
other evidence suggests the picture was probably copied by an inexpert
artist from an expertly done original. (Nickell
2002)
In 2002, a report on a secret study of the Image of
Guadalupe was published. José Sol Rosales, an art restoration expert, found
that the cloth "appeared to be a mixture of linen and hemp or cactus fiber"
that had been primed with calcium sulfate. The paint used to produce the
image consisted of the rather earthly combination of pigment, water, and a
binding medium (Nickell
2002).
The improbability of the story of Juan Diego (some
doubt he even existed), his visions, and the miraculous painting
has not deterred the faithful from belief. In fact, only a deep religious
faith could account for the continued popularity of Virgin Mary sightings. The skeptic
understands the desire to have a powerful ally in
heaven, one who will protect and guide, console, and love you no matter what troubles you
have here on Earth. The skeptic also understands how easy it is to find confirmation for almost any belief, if one is very selective in one's thinking and perception. We understand how
easy it is to see things that others do not see. Having
visions also makes one feel special. Thus, it is not difficult to understand how many
people see the Virgin Mary in the clouds, in a tortilla, in a dish of spaghetti, in
patterns of light, and in the bark of a tree.
The cult of the Virgin Mary probably has its roots in goddess worship, which has its
roots in the desire for a Good Mother, one who loves and nourishes, protects and guides,
comforts and encourages. The Virgin is pure, clean, generous with her time, infinitely
patient, unlike so many people one meets. She is often the harbinger of peace. The Mother
gives birth and through sympathetic magic brings fertility
to the crops and the tribe. The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus who is believed by
many to be God, making her the mother of God, even though God is eternal and
has no beginning. She is also said to have been impregnated by
the Holy Spirit, rather than by her husband, Joseph. She is not divine, according to the
Catholic Church, but her devotees certainly seem to view the Virgin Mary as a goddess.
A shrine to Our Lady of Watsonville has been set up near the soccer fields and
playgrounds of Pinto Lake County Park. Father Roman Bunda celebrated Mass at the site on
the 6th anniversary of the Contreras's discovery of the image in the bark. "For those
who believe, no explanation is necessary," said Fr. Bunda. "For those who don't
believe, no explanation is possible." He's right about the first part.
See also confirmation bias,
faith, pareidolia, saint, selective thinking, victim soul, and wishful thinking.
further reading
Callahan, Philip Serna. (1981). The tilma under infra-red radiation: An
infrared and artistic analysis of the image of the Virgin Mary in the
Basilica of Guadalupe. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Research in
the Apostolate.
Nickell, Joe, and John F. Fischer. (1985). "The Image
of Guadalupe: A folkloristic and iconographic investigation." Skeptical
Inquirer. Spring.
Nickell, Joe. (1997). "Image of Guadalupe: myth-
perception." Skeptical Inquirer. January/February. |
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