Tepeyac
The hill north of Mexico City where, according to the Nican Mopohua, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531. The basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands at its foot.
Tepeyac is a small hill at the northern edge of Mexico City. The Nican Mopohua says that the Virgin Mary appeared at Tepeyac, which it calls a little hill and says is now known as Guadalupe (Nican Mopohua lines i–ii, 7). It says that her shrine was built there and that the image on Juan Diego’s cloak is kept in it (Nican Mopohua lines 184, 211). John Paul II canonized Juan Diego in the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the site in 2002 and called it the Marian heart of Mexico and of America (John Paul II, Homily at the canonization of Juan Diego 1). See Our Lady of Guadalupe.
What happened here
- 1531, traditional dateOur Lady of Guadalupe
A Nahuatl account printed in 1649 tells how the Virgin Mary appeared in December 1531 to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac and left her image on his cloak. The Catholic Church has approved the devotion and in 2002 declared Juan Diego a saint.