Felíz día del santo!

View of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico City, October 2008. Click to enlarge. Image taken by the Mrs.

Today is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a day I have written about before. The Wikipedia article on the Virgin is a good place to start for those who would like an introduction to the story of her appearances to Juan Diego and, on this day in 1531, the miracle of her image's appearance on Juan Diego's ayate (something like a man's rebozo), now on display in the basilica.

As readers of this blog know, recently I have written some posts here and elsewhere on the Virgin and how she is depicted in art of the colonial era, and what all that might suggest about her place in the history and culture of the Americas. Below are links to those posts, should anyone be interested.

A look at a painting. Not primarily about the Virgin of Guadalupe, but this post makes some observations about the practice of syncretism as, at least in part, a response to the rapidly-growing mixed-race population in New Spain.

The Virgin of Guadalupe and "The New World" as oxymoron. A look at three allegorized paintings of the Virgin and what they suggest about her image (in all its senses) as beyond the final control of either the Church or the people who venerate her.

A brief adventure in New World iconography. In which I try to explain why a beaver, of all things, appears in a frieze depicting the Virgin's appearance to Juan Diego.