Fides Quaerens Intellectum
Sources for those who wish to go deeper: the earliest accounts of the apparitions, the teaching of the Popes, and the Church's doctrine on the place of the Blessed Virgin in the mystery of Christ.
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Attributed to Antonio Valeriano, c. 1545–1560
The earliest and most authoritative account of the apparitions, composed in elegant classical Nahuatl. Its title means simply 'Here it is told.' Every serious study of Guadalupe begins with this text, which preserves Our Lady's words in the language in which she spoke them.
Ecclesiastical inquiry, Mexico City, 1666
Sworn testimony gathered from twenty witnesses, including elderly indigenous residents of Cuautitlán who transmitted the memory of Juan Diego from their forebears. The depositions were submitted to Rome in support of the liturgical cult.
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Pope Benedict XIV, 1754
The brief by which the Holy See approved the Mass and Office of Our Lady of Guadalupe and named her Patroness of New Spain, citing the words of Psalm 147: 'Non fecit taliter omni nationi' — He has not done thus for any other nation.
St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, 1999
The post-synodal exhortation in which the Holy Father names Our Lady of Guadalupe 'Mother and Evangelizer of America' and fixes December 12 as her liturgical celebration throughout the continent, presenting her as the model of an inculturated proclamation of the Gospel.
St. John Paul II, Mexico City, July 31, 2002
Preached in the Basilica at Tepeyac. The Pope holds up Juan Diego as 'the simple, humble Indian' through whom God chose to act, and calls the peoples of the Americas to imitate his faith, his charity toward his uncle, and his obedience.
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Second Vatican Council, 1964
The Council's dogmatic teaching on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church. Essential for reading Guadalupe rightly: Mary's every grace flows from Christ's mediation and leads back to Him, and devotion to her is never separate from the worship due to God alone.
Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation, 1974
The Church's guide to the right ordering of Marian devotion — biblical, liturgical, ecumenical, and anthropological in its criteria. It warns equally against exaggeration and against neglect, and grounds all Marian piety in the liturgy.
Revelation 12:1 — with the Fathers
The scriptural image standing behind the tilma: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, crowned with stars, bearing a child against the dragon. Read with the Fathers, it illuminates why Our Lady appears at Tepeyac standing before the sun and upon the moon.
A Word on Reading Well
All Marian devotion is measured by the rule the Council gave us: whatever honours the Mother must lead to the worship of her Son, to whom alone adoration is due. Read these sources in that light, and in union with your pastors.
