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| Photo by Loci B. Lenar |
The following excerpt is from the NCRegister:
By Celeste Behe, Register Correspondent
A barren hillside in Mexico. A humble peasant named Juan Diego. A beautiful lady. A painted tilma.
The facts surrounding the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe are known to most informed Catholics. Or are they?
"Ask just about any educated Catholic where Guadalupe is, and the answer you’re likely to get is ‘Mexico,’" says movie director and producer Tim Watkins. "But, in fact, Guadalupe is in Spain."
It’s a surprising piece of information, one of many revealed in the fascinating documentary The Blood and the Rose.
"There are numerous connections between certain events that took place in both the Holy Land and in Europe and the events which led up to Our Lady’s miraculous appearance in the New World," says Watkins. "Their convergence, more than 15 centuries in the making, was guided by the hand of divine Providence."
The feature-length documentary — which brings together the talents of executive producer Steve McEveety (The Passion of the Christ) and actor Eduardo Verastegui (Bella) — includes on-location interviews with experts in the fields of science, history and theology.
Their findings help to recount the "untold" part of the Guadalupe story, which, says Watkins, "doesn’t end with Juan Diego."
"The movie really conveys much more than the Guadalupe story," agrees Raymond Arroyo, creator and host of EWTN’s The World Over and guest speaker at the Jan. 24 premiere screening of the documentary.
Referring to the image of Guadalupe, he says that "any image that shows up 500 years after its premiere on an air freshener or a rapper’s bicep is an image firmly ensconced in the popular imagination."
But, as Watkins observes, key elements of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe are usually missing from these reproductions. "This is no ordinary icon that we can just alter at will to suit different applications and tastes," he says. "God himself is the artist, and he conveys in the image numerous messages and proofs that demonstrate that it is nothing less than his word."
The film sheds light on many of these elements, including the pattern on Our Lady’s garment.
Read more: Documentary of Lady of Guadalupe
