Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition across Five Centuries

by D. A. Brading

• ISBN13: 9780521801317
• ISBN10: 0521801311
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Juan Diego, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in 1531 miraculously imprinting her likeness on his cape, was canonised in Mexico in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. In 1999, the revered image of Our Lady of Guadalupe had been proclaimed patron saint of the Americas by the Pope. How did a poor Indian and a sixteenth-century Mexican painting of the Virgin Mary attract such unprecedented honours? Across the centuries the enigmatic power of the image has aroused fervent devotion in Mexico: it served as the banner of the rebellion against Spanish rule and, despite scepticism and anti-clericalism, still remains a potent symbol of the modern nation. This book traces the intellectual origins, the sudden efflorescence and the adamantine resilience of the tradition of Our Lady of Guadalupe and will fascinate anyone concerned with the history of religion and its symbols.

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

1. Image and typology

2. Myth and history

3. Woman of the Apocalypse: Indian seer

5. Presence and tradition

6. Patron of Mexico

7. Divine idea

8. Heavenly painting

9. Myth and scepticism

10. The last resort

11. History and infallibility

12. The coronation

13. Juan Diego

14. Nican mopohua

15. Epiphany and revelation

Bibliography.