The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe Quiz

Answer: a mysterious image

Infrared photography determined no brush strokes or underdrawing. Kodak de Mexico, SA announced that the image was essentially photographic in character - however, as the image dates from 1531, it cannot be explained by science.

Answer: Mexico City, Mexico

The image is displayed in the "new Basilica" which is located near Tepeyac Hill within six miles of the Mexico City center. This shrine is visited annually by 20 million pilgrims.

Answer: false

This ayate or cactus fabric, with a life span of twenty years, has been displayed for more than 470 years. It is in good condition including the vibrant colors. This tilma has withstood torrid Mexican summers, the soot of thousands of candles, a spill of nitric acid and a bomb blast which bent a heavy metal crucifix but failed to break the glass frame covering this image.

Answer: true

This site was the original Aztec shrine to the great Mother of God, Tonantzin. The image was given to Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant, on a tilma or cactus cloth robe. Juan Diego was canonized by the Catholic Church (declared a saint) in Rome in 2002.

Answer: False

She spoke Aztec or Nahuatl at Tepeyac, which has no D or G sounds, and the corruption of translation is understandable as the bishop was Spanish. The phonetic equivalent may have been: Tequetalope or coatlaxopeuh which roughly means "the one who delivers from evil".
Guadalupe was an old shrine in Spain and the Bishop understood the interpretor as saying: Guadalupe, however it is unlikely that is the word he used.

Answer: roses

Sensing a violent insurrection Bishop Zumaraga secretly asked the Blessed Virgin in his prayers for a sign of peace and the sign he asked for were Castilian roses, unheard of in Mexico and especially in the rocky and cold Tepeyac Hill in December.

Answer: False

The correct answer is five million. In addition to the image, the legend of Quetzalcoatl affected the Aztecs, too. He seems to be a significant historical person associated with kindness, charity and a loathing for human sacrifice, which was the practice at that time, with as many as 80,000 sacrificed in one four day period.

He prophesied his return on the exact date that coincidentally Cortes arrived in Mexico which was Good Friday, April 22, 1519. In keeping with the tradition associated with Good Friday, Cortes wore black.

This impressed his Aztec hosts as it was the color worn by their priests.

Answer: all of these

The Aztecs read pictographs very well and the Guadalupe image reinforced their beliefs about her. She stands in front of the sun, meaning she was greater the their dreaded sun-god Huitzilopochtli; she stood on the moon which signified the serpent-god.

Her blue-green coat is the color worn by Aztec royalty. The stars strewn across her mantle signifies that she is greater than the stars which they worshipped also. Her humble demeanor with head bowed and hands joined in prayer shows clear reverence to God.

There is other sybolism too including the black cincture which signifies impending birth. Also she wears a cross on her brooch. The position of the constellations in her robe are an exact match for the constellations at the time of this apparition.

Answer: Juan Diego

A study by several opthalmologists of the eyes of this image reveals that the reflection found there is in conformity with the laws of optics specifically the Purkinje-Sanson law of optic physiology. The mirror principle of the human eye is well represented in this image with a clear representation of Juan Diego reflected in her eyes.

Answer: All of these

Within fifteen years of the miraculous appearance at Tepeyac Hill, nine million Mexican people were baptized. This has been called the "Counter Reformation" as this occurred while Martin Luther in Germany was introducing new thought and worship to Europeans.