In the 70s, when scientists had doubts about the hand-made nature of the icon, they carried out special studies of the paint layer using chemical analysis. It turned out that the history of painting does not know such colors: from different angles of view they change their shades - just like the bright colors of butterflies, beetles or bird feathers
Every Mexican knows this story since childhood. An elderly peasant Juan Diego was collecting brushwood in his old cloak in the forest, suddenly he saw a beautiful young woman (who called herself Guadeloupe) and immediately recognized her as the Virgin Mary
To dispel doubts about the miracle, the Holy Virgin turned the brushwood into bright red roses, and the cloak - into the icon "Holy Virgin Mary of Guadeloupe." And the whole scene of miraculous transformations fit into the pupil of the Mother of God depicted on the icon.
With a microscope, you can see all the little things: a grazing herd of cows, a woman's curly head, even dew drops on flowers. Even the most skilled craftsman could not depict this scene with all the small details within only one and a half millimeters of the pupil.
The icon, which is more than four and a half centuries old, is distinguished by the property of a hologram - a photographic plate that makes a flat image three-dimensional in laser light.
In the 70s of the last century, astronomers studied the location of the stars on the icon and determined that this is exactly how the firmament with stars should have looked on December 12, 1531 near the Mexican capital.
In the 70s, when scientists had doubts about the hand-made nature of the icon, they carried out special studies of the paint layer using chemical analysis. It turned out that the history of painting does not know such colors: from different angles of view they change their shades - just like the bright colors of butterflies, beetles or bird feathers.
The structure of the canvas on which the image is applied is no less amazing. This is not a canvas in the exact sense of the word, but a fabric made from cactus fibers. There are gaps between them, which, according to all known painting technologies, must be primed - otherwise the paint simply will not stick. There is no primer on the icon, and no specialist can understand how the paint does not fly off the fibers.
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Moreover, the variety of cactus from which the linen is woven is well known. The normal lifespan of these fibers does not exceed 25 years, after which they rot. How Juan Diego's cloak survived four and a half centuries is also impossible to explain.
During this time, lips, foreheads and hands touched the icon. For four centuries it was not protected by glass. But not a single wear is visible on the icon.
During the persecution of the church in 1921, a terrorist planted a bomb in a vase with a flower not far from the icon. The explosion split the marble altar, the crucifix was twisted, and the explosion did no harm to the icon - only the powder smoke slightly darkened the hands of the Holy Virgin. Later it was removed by restorers.
By the way, during the restoration a bottle of acid was accidentally overturned on the icon. A white spot appeared, which miraculously disappeared after three days.
The incredible vitality and miraculous power of the icon "Virgin of Guadeloupe" brought it such popularity that in 1961 a special temple in the form of a tent was built for it in the north of the Mexican capital.
Today it is impossible to get close to the icon. There is a running track in front of the altar - a horizontal escalator. And the believers only have time to bow to the Virgin of Guadeloupe. For which many travel hundreds of kilometers.
Reference
Having believed in a miracle, the pagan Juan Diego became a Christian, and during his visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II canonized the peasant as a Catholic saint.