"St. Juan Diego"
Miguel Cabrera

Juan Diego (1474-1548) brought the world the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was an indigenous peasant of New Spain, what we call Mexico today. He had four visions of the Blessed Mother in December, 1531. He told the bishop about them, and when asked for proof, Mary provided Juan Diego with roses in winter. He carried them in his tilma, a native garment similar to a cape, which he opened before the bishop. It is said the bishop sunk to his knees, because on the tilma was a beautiful paining of the Virgin Mary as an indigenous American.

The tilma was then displayed in a chapel near its current site, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Devotion to Our Lady rapidly spread in the 1500s with the reporting of miracles, and the Church gained tens of millions of converts in the New World. Our Lady of Guadalupe now has a world-wide devotion, and each year the Basilica receives tens of millions of faithful visitors. Juan Diego was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

"The True Portrait of the Servant of God, Juan Diego" are the words across the top of this painting. Miguel Mateo Maldonado y Cabrera (1695-1768) about two hundred years after Juan Diegos visions. Cabrera was considered the greatest artist of New Spain. A man of mixed European and Indigenous parentage, Cabrera painted many beautiful pictures of Spanish fathers with Indian wives and their children.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11", or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. All Approx! Fine art printers do this because the images are almost never the same rectangular ratio of the standard paper sizes. It also gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in a frame without a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

Thanks for your interest!

Thanks!
Sue & John

"In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art." ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - CatholicArtAndJewelr