Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert to Catholic Christianity, on Dec. 9 and again on Dec. 12, 1531. During her first apparition, she requested that a chapel be built on the spot where she appeared, Tepeyac Hill (now a suburb of Mexico City, Mexico). She followed her request by saying, “This way I can show my love that I have for all the Aztecs and all who seek my help.” She went on to tell him that she be ready to aid those who are in need of comfort, protection, help, graces, and would be a loving merciful mother to all those who seek her out and trust her and have faith in her, to also not be afraid or lose hope. When Juan told the Archbishop Juan de Zurmarraga about the apparition of Our Lady and her request to have a church built at the foot of the hill, he demanded a sign from Our Lady before he would approve any construction of a church. This was when mysterious and miraculous events began to unravel and change the whole world into the new world which was to come.

Juan Diego was a Chichimec peasant and a Marian Visionary, his title or trade for a living. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego four times and once to his uncle. Juan Diego was born 1474, date not known, in Cuautitlan, Mexico and died on May 30, 1548, in Tepeyac, Mexico City, Mexico. His Feast Day is Dec. 9 and he was canonized July 31, 2002, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City by Pope John Paul II. Juan Diego is the first Catholic Indigenous saint to the Americas; he was beatified in 1990 and is now the Patron saint of the Indigenous people of the Americas.

The Nican Mopohua is the most significant and most critical historical source reported on the Marian apparitions in Mexico in December 1531.