Story
In 1531 the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor Indian named Juan Diego at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City. She identified herself as the Mother of the True God, instructed him to have the Spanish bishop build a temple on the site and left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma(a cape made cactus-cloth). 479 years later the tilma shows no signs of deterioration, and the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is as bright as the day it was bestowed.
