Canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, Juan Diego, the Aztec American Indian who received the visions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was the first indigenous American to be canonized a saint.

Juan Diego was born in 1474 in an area that is now part of Mexico City, Mexico. His indigenous name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which means “talking eagle.” Juan was most likely from a peasant family and worked as a weaver, farmer, and laborer. When Franciscan missionaries arrived in the area in 1524, Juan and his wife, Maria, were among the first to be baptized, even though Juan was already 50 years old by that time.

On December 9, 1531, Juan woke up before dawn to begin the 15-mile walk to attend daily Mass at the Franciscan mission, as he usually did. As he passed Tepeyac Hill, Juan heard music and a voice calling him in his native language. Curious and excited, Juan climbed the hill and saw there a radiant lady, Mary, whose clothes were shining and glimmering. She asked Juan to go to the bishop and tell him that she wished for a shrine to be built on that site.

Juan did as he was told, but the bishop was skeptical and asked for time to think about it. On his way home, Juan saw the Lady once again and suggested that she might do better to pick someone else because he was “a man of no importance.” The Lady insisted that she wanted Juan's particular help, and the next day Juan returned to the bishop to repeat her request.

The bishop asked for a sign to prove that the vision was authentic, and Juan returned to the hill and told the Lady, who responded that she would provide one the next day.

On December 11, Juan’s uncle fell sick, and Juan was busy at home caring for him. Juan's wife, Maria, had died two years earlier, and his uncle was his dearest and closest relative. The next day, his uncle’s condition worsened and the distraught Juan Diego left to find a priest to hear his uncle’s confession to prepare him for death. Juan was embarrassed that he had not fulfilled the Lady’s wishes, so he took a different route around Tepeyac to avoid seeing her, but Mary appeared to him on his detour and gently reprimanded him for not turning to her—“Am I not here? I, who am your mother?” she said.

The Lady assured Juan that his uncle was healthy, that she was watching over him. She instructed Juan to climb Tepeyac once again and collect the roses he saw in bloom at the top of the hill. Juan obeyed and picked from the unusual, out-of-season abundance of beautiful roses he found. Juan took the roses to the Lady in his tilma, that is, his cloak, and she rearranged them before sending him to the bishop.

When Juan arrived at the bishop's palace, he opened up his tilma, to show him the amazing sign of the roses in winter. But, when Juan opened up his tilma and the flowers tumbled out, an image of the Lady appeared, painted in vibrant colors on his tilma. The bishop knelt before the image, in awe, recognizing the Lady as an image of Mary, the Mother of God. Immediately, the bishop began to enact Mary's request to build a shrine on Tepeyac.

Juan was granted permission to live the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut attached to the church built on Tepeyac, and he spent his days in prayer and service to the pilgrims who came to the shrine. Juan died in 1548 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

One miracle that was listed in Juan Diego's cause for canonization occurred during the beatification celebration for Juan Diego in 1990. A twenty-year-old drug addict attempted suicide by throwing himself head-first from an apartment balcony onto a patch of concrete thirty feet below. The man severely injured his brain and spinal column and went into a coma.

The man’s mother saw her son jump, and invoked Juan Diego’s help to save him. Three days later, the man awoke from his coma—and only a week later he was discharged from the hospital because he had recovered.

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls later this week, on December 12. The shrine that Juan Deigo helped make a reality receives over twenty million pilgrims every year—people come from all over the world to view the image of Mary that still shines from the fabric of Juan Diego's tilma.

St. Juan Diego, the simple and humble man whose faith founded the great shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe—pray for us!

To learn even more about Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoazin, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.