Rogo (1982, p. 120) says, “Between 1531 and 1648, no fewer than thirty-three documents describing the events of December 1531 were placed on record. As Father José Bravo Ugarte, an expert on Mexican history, states in his Cuestiones historicas guadalupanas (1946), ‘There can be little doubt that the story of the Guadalupe miracle rests on firm historical fact.’ Even Zumárraga apparently wrote out an account of the miracle, though his description was destroyed in 1778 by a fire that struck the archive room of the monastery where it had been deposited. In 1666 the Church officially investigated the miracle, retraced its history, and documented the evidence supporting its authenticity.” As part of the 1666 investigations, a group of painters examined the image and concluded it could not have been made by even the finest human artists. They stated: “It is impossible for any human craftsman to paint or create a work so fine, clean and well formed on a fabric so coarse” (Mini 2000, p. 167).
Over the years, there have been many investigations of the cloak and its image. The miraculous preservation of the maguey fabric was noted long ago. In 1660, Father Florencia wrote in his historical book la estrella del norte de mexico, “The permanence of the coarse maguey canvas. . . has lasted more than a hundred years. This is miraculous, since it is as entire and strong as it was the first day; especially when we consider the place in which it is subject to wind and saline dust and the heat of the candles and the incense which the devout continuously offer—without fading, or darkening or cracking” (Rogo 1982, p. 120).
In the twentieth century, enlarged photographs of the eyes of the Virgin showed a human face, apparently that of Juan Diego, reflected in each eye. In 1956, a group of eye and vision specialists looked at these images. Mini (2000, p. 169) stated: “They found that the images were reflected not only from the corneas of both of her eyes, but also from the lenses. . . . The image of Juan Diego’s face appears three times in each of the Virgin’s eyes. It appears once at the surface of the cornea, again at the anterior surface of the lens, and a third time at the posterior surface of the lens. . . . The images of Juan Diego in the Virgin’s eyes maintain perfect optical proportions under the closest scientific scrutiny. The scientists discerned that the images in each eye are in the exact locations required by optical physics.”
In 1979, Philip Callahan, a biophysicist from the University of Florida, tested the image on the cloak and found no brushstrokes or any “underdrawn blueprint” (Rogo 1982, p. 121). He also confirmed that the image has suffered no fading or cracking, which is unusual for an image produced by painting four hundred years ago. Callahan did find that there had been some additions to the original image. A sunburst had been painted around the Virgin’s figure and some stars and a golden border had been added to the Virgin’s cape. But Callahan pointed out that these additions had faded, while the original image retained its full colors. The cloak bearing the image is made of maguey cactus fiber, which should have rotted away hundreds of years ago. Callahan inspected the fibers to see if the cloak had been treated to prevent rotting, and found that this was not the case (Rogo 1982, p. 120).
The village of Pontmain is near the city of Le Mans in northwestern France. On the evening of January 17, 1871, Eugene Barbadette, who was twelve years old, and his brother Joseph, who was ten years old, were working in the barn on their father’s farm. Eugene decided to take a break from their work and went outside into the winter night. The sky was clear and filled with stars. Then Eugene noticed the figure of a beautiful woman floating in the sky. She was dressed in a blue robe, studded with golden stars, and wore a blue veil. At first, Eugene took the vision as a sign that his brother, who was in the French army, had died in battle with the Prussians, who had invaded France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. But he then noticed that the woman was smiling, and decided the vision must mean something favorable. Jeanette Detais, a neighborhood woman who had come for a visit, was standing nearby. But she could not see the apparition. Eugene’s father Mr. Barbadette and Eugene’s younger brother Joseph also came out. The father could not see anything, but Joseph could. Joseph and Eugene then began speaking to each other about what they were seeing. During the course of the evening, the boys continued to see the apparition, while others arriving on the scene, including Mrs. Barbadette, her maid, and a local nun, Sister Vitaline, could not.
Sister Vitaline concluded that perhaps the apparition was visible only to children. She went back to her convent to get two girls who were staying there. The girls were Francoise Richer, who was eleven years old, and Jeanne-Marie Lebosse, who was nine years old. Sister Vitaline deliberately did not tell them anything about the vision, but as soon as the girls came out into the street, they started telling Sister Vitaline about the apparition. They could see a beautiful woman in the sky, wearing a blue robe with stars on it. Soon thereafter, Joseph Barbadette came over from his house, and, as previously, he also saw the vision. Other children were also brought to the scene, and they could all see the apparition, although the adults could still see nothing. The children then began to describe changes in the apparition. An oval frame with four candles appeared around the figure of the woman. Then, letter by letter, a message began to form under the woman in the sky. The final message was mais priez, Dieu vous exaucera en peu de temps mon Fils se laisse toucher, which means: “But pray, God will hear your prayers in a short time. My Son allows himself to be moved.” By the time the message was being spelled out, the children had dispersed to separate locations, and were thus out of communication with each other, but the same letters appeared to all of them.
At the same time, a messenger arrived in Pontmain, saying that the Prussians were marching in the direction of the village. After the message in the sky was spelled out, the woman in the sky, identified by the faithful Catholics of Pontmain as the Blessed Virgin Mary, raised her arms in benediction. Then the message faded, and the Virgin began to frown as a crucifix formed on her chest. Finally, after the apparition had been visible for two hours, it faded away.The Prussian armies mysteriously stopped their advance at the town of Laval, and did not proceed any further. In 1875, the Bishop of Laval attested to the reality of the Marian apparition at Pontmain and a church was erected at the place where the apparition was seen (Rogo 1982, pp. 214–217).
Fatima, in Portugal, was in 1917 the site of the most famous of Marian apparitions. The apparition was seen several times by three children: Lucia dos Santos (nine years old), Francisco Marto (eight years old), and Jacinta Marto (six years old). All three were shepherds, and would take out their flocks together. They were related as cousins.
The Marian apparitions were preceded by apparitions of angels. The first angel apparition occurred to Lucia in 1915, when she was out herding sheep with three other girls. Lucia recalled: “We saw a figure poised in the air above the trees; it looked like a statue made of snow, rendered almost transparent by the rays of the sun. . . . We went on praying, with our eyes fixed on the figure before us, and as we finished our prayer, the figure disappeared” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 61). Lucia and her friends saw the figure twice more.
By 1916, Lucia was herding sheep with Francisco and Jacinta. One day they were watching their sheep in an olive grove at the foot of a hill. After taking their lunch, they chanted their rosary prayers and then began to play a game they called “pebbles.” Then a strong wind moved the branches of the trees. The children thought this unusual, because it had been a calm day. Then the same figure Lucia saw in 1915 appeared again, but this time she could see it more clearly. It was moving toward them over the olive trees. “It was a young man,” said Lucia, “about fourteen or fifteen years old, whiter than snow, transparent as crystal when the sun shines through it, and of great beauty. On reaching us, he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me’” (Maria Lucia 1998, p. 63). Some time later, during the summer, the angel appeared again, near a well on property owned by Lucia’s family.