The Nican Mopohua

All the stories about the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe were inspired by the Nican Mopohua. This work was brilliantly written in Hahuatl, the Aztec language, by the Indian writer Antonio Valeriano in the middle of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately the origin of his work has never been known. The first copy was published in Nahuatl by Luis Lasso de la Vega in 1649.

Here are some excerpts of an English translation of the story: 

The Apparitions of Our Lady at Guadalupe

Ten years after the capture of Mexico, the war ended and peace reigned among the people. In this way the Catholic faith was able to blossom, as well as the knowledge of the true God for whom we live. At that time, in the year 1531, in early December, there lived a poor Indian named Juan Diego, known as a native of Cuautitlan. In some respects, he spiritually belonged to Tlatilolco. The seer of Guadalupe was a recently baptized 57 year old adult convert, when Mary appeared to him on Tepeyac hill, formerly the site of a pagan temple.

She who crushes the serpent

On his way to Mass at sunrise on December 9, the feast of the Immaculate Conception at the time, Juan Diego heard singing on the hill known as Tepeyac. Then he heard a voice calling him:
“Juanito, Juanito, dearest Juanito.”

He then ventured to the place where he had heard the voice coming from. He was not frightened in any way. On the contrary, he was filled with joy. He climbed the hill and when he reached the top he saw a Lady was standing there who told him to come forward.
Approaching her, he marveled at her supernatural splendor; her clothes shone like the sun. Her feet stood on a cliff that glowed with light like a precious stone, and the earth shone like an arc in heaven. The mezquites, nopales and other weeds that grew at that height looked like emeralds, their leaves like turquoise, their branches and thorns shone like gold. He bowed before her and heard her gentle and courteous words. She both charmed and enchanted him deeply.

She said: “Listen, Juan, my dearest and youngest son, where are you going?"

He answered her that he was going to attend Mass in Mexico at Tlatilolco.

She replied: “Know and understand without a doubt, my dearest, littlest, and youngest son, that I am the perfect and ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of truth through Whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near us, the Lord of heaven and earth. I would very much like to have a little house built here for me, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him and make Him manifest. I will give Him to the people with all my personal love, my compassion, my help, my protection, because I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and that of all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings. And to bring about what my compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve, you must go to the residence of the Bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you there to show him how strongly I wish him to build a temple here on the plain for me. You will report to him exactly all you have seen, admired and what you have heard. Know for sure that I will appreciate it very much; I will be very grateful and reward you, because you will deserve the reward I will give you for your fatigue, and for the work and trouble that my mission will cause you. Now my dearest son, you have heard my instructions; go now and put forth your best effort.”

Juan Diego presented himself before the Bishop and explained Mary's request, but he was initially rebuffed by the perplexed bishop, who said he would really need a sign from heaven in order to comply.

On her next meeting with Juan Diego, however, the Lady promised a sign that would convince the bishop, but when he returned to his village he found that his uncle, with whom he lived, was seriously ill, in fact dying, and in need of the last sacraments. He met Mary again on his way back to Mexico City to fetch a priest, and she told him that he was free to visit the Bishop, because even now his uncle was well again.

Mary then said, “Go my dearest son, to the top of the hill, to where you saw me and received my directions and you will find different kinds of flowers. Cut them, gather them, put them all together, then come down here and bring them before me.”

Juan Diego went and gathered the miraculous, out-of-season flowers that he found at the top of the hill and carried them in his rough cactus fiber outer garment, his tilma.

“My youngest and dearest son, these different kinds of flowers are the proof, the sign that you will take to the Bishop. You will tell him from me that he is to see in them my desire, and therefore he is to carry out my wish, my will. And you, who are my messenger, in you I place my absolute trust. I strictly order you not to unfold your tilma or reveal its contents until you are in his presence. You will relate to him everything very carefully: how I sent you to the top of the hill to cut and gather flowers, all you saw and marveled at in order to convince the Governing Priest, so that he will then do what lies within his responsibility to make sure that my house of God that I requested will be built.” 

Juan Diego left at once on his errand and once there he began to tell his story while unfolding the tilma, as the Bishop, and some important guests who happened to be present, saw the wonderful Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. This, rather than the flowers, was the real sign for Bishop Zumárraga. 

The miraculous image made without the hands of man

News of the prodigy spread quickly and the result was that the Aztecs, who had been reluctant to get involved in Christianity, as the religion of their Spanish conquerors, flocked into the Church.

The title “Guadalupe” is probably the phonetic equivalent of the title, “She who crushes the serpent,” a perfect image of the way devotion to Mary was able to destroy the vestiges of the satanically inspired Aztec religion which involved human sacrifice. Snake symbolism was very prevalent in this religion.The miraculous image has been preserved in Mexico now for over four and half centuries, although such fiber garments usually disintegrate within twenty years. It has defied all attempts to give it a natural explanation and thus we can have full confidence in the historicity of accounts of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

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Source: Br. Francis Mary, "Nican Mopohua: Original Account of Guadalupe," in A Handbook on Guadalupe.