The surprising connection of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the New York Public Library
- Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
One December a few years ago, Colin and I had a New York work trip that gave us about 36 hours to explore the city. We walked 30 miles across wonderfully wintery Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and the Highline. We feasted at Mercato, Chelsea Market, and Maman. We visited the iconic public library, the Met, the 9/11 memorial, and St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Amid the flurry of our trip, we encountered a sacred surprise within the stone walls of the New York Public Library.
Most people know the NYPL for its handsome marble lions, breathtaking Beaux-Arts architecture, and treasures like the Gutenberg Bible and early drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Few know that also tucked inside is an original eyewitness account of Our Lady’s 1531 apparition in Guadalupe.
In 1880, 350 years after Our Lady first appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, a precious piece of Guadalupe came to New York. Here’s the little known story.
The Monumentos Guadalupanos at the NYPL
The original eyewitness account is known as the “Nican Mopohua,” which means “here it is told.” It’s written in Nahuati, the native language of Juan Diego’s people. The eyewitness document belongs to a bigger collection called the Monumentos Guadalupanos. This collection contains sermons, homilies, and devotional texts.
According to the NYPL: “The Monumentos Guadalupanos arrived in New York from the 1880 sale of books related to Mexico from the Library of Senor Don Jose Fernando Ramirez in London. Representatives for James Lenox acquired items 379 and 380 at the London auction. As listed in the catalog, these items had been arranged to ‘comprise everything which the late indefatigable Mr. Ramirez was able to collect on both sides of the Atlantic, respecting this renowned sanctuary, embracing a period of more than three hundred years.’ The two series, the first formed by three volumes, and the second by two, is still maintained today.”
These works are called “monuments” not because of their physical size, but because of their social magnitude. In them, we hear firsthand the voices of priests, theologians, indigenous writers, and pilgrims connected to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Why Our Lady of Guadalupe matters for our time
When Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on that cold December morning, she had the dark physical appearance and dress of an indigenous woman—not the fair skin of the European missionaries or their sacred icons. She spoke to the peasant farmer in his native Nahuati language—neither in Spanish nor the high Latin of the Roman Church. She identified herself as “mother of the very true deity,” a formulation that had particular significance for the peasant people. And she told him, “Am I not here who am your mother?”—not their mother, not someone else’s mother, not the mother of another people from another place, but his own.
In Guadalupe she made it clear that Christ is for all, everywhere. That equal human dignity is for all, everywhere. No group may claim superiority over another. No faithful tradition may claim to possess the only, truest, or best expression of Catholic life. Our faith is and has always been pure grace and gift, not a prize or trophy. Faith is given to one so that it may be joyfully handed to another, like the Castilian roses whose beauty and fragrance filled the room and were equally shared by all present, from the archbishop to the holy, obedient peasant.
St John Paul II described Guadalupe as “the beginning of evangelization with a vitality that surpassed all expectations. Christ, through His mother, took up the central elements of the indigenous culture, purified them, and gave them the definitive sense of salvation... a model of perfectly inculturated evangelization.”
How to make a Guadalupe pilgrimage in New York
Next time you’re traveling to New York, add a Guadalupe mini-pilgrimage into your itinerary.
The NYPL is easily walkable to many other destinations that are probably on your list.
Just a 20 minute walk away from the NYPL is the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St Bernard, the oldest Catholic parish in New York dedicated to Mary under this title. The parish was founded in 1902 to serve Spanish immigrants in “Little Spain,” ultimately becoming a vast and diverse Latino community.
If you’re there in December, check the parish calendar for events celebrating St Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Location: Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY
Hours: Typically 10:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m. (closed Sundays and some holidays)
Admission: Free for public areas and most exhibitions (even most tours are free)
Nearby landmarks: Grand Central Terminal, Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center
Recommended time: 60 minutes (more if you make a research appointment)
Recommended ages: All, including children
Location: 328 W 14th Street, New York, NY
Hours: Monday through Saturday, typically 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m./2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.; Sunday, typically 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Admission: Free
Recommended time: 30-90 minutes depending upon prayer and liturgy
Recommended ages: All, including children
The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12. I'll be writing about her here on A Heroic Moment. Our Lady and mother, come to help us today!
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