How Our Lady of Guadalupe crushed the head of the serpent

One of the most mysterious and frequently debated aspects of the apparitions to St. Juan Diego is the title by which the Virgin Mary identified herself: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In most Marian apparitions, Mary is named after a local place, such as Our Lady of Lourdes or Our Lady of Fatima. In 16th-century Mexico, however, there was no known location called “Guadalupe,” making the name itself puzzling.

The title appears to originate in Spain, specifically from Mount Guadalupe in the region of Extremadura. According to tradition, in 1326 a shepherd named Gil Cordero was searching for a missing cow near the mountain. When he found the animal dead, he prepared to skin it, but the cow suddenly rose and was restored to life. At that moment, Gil saw a beautiful Lady, who instructed him to tell local authorities to build a chapel on that site.

A shrine was eventually constructed there, and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe spread widely throughout Spain. By the time of the Spanish evangelization of the Americas, the title was already deeply familiar to many Spaniards — a fact that may help explain how the name was recognized when it was spoken at Tepeyac centuries later.

One frequently cited explanation — and one that many historians question — is that the apparition in Mexico involved a word from the Aztec Nahuatl language.

Writing for Aleteia, Daniel Esparza explains that “some historians have suggested that Juan Diego called her Coatlaxopeuh, a Nahuatl term often translated as ‘she who defeats the serpent.’”

According to this theory, the reference would not be to the biblical serpent, but to Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent deity of the Aztec pantheon — suggesting a symbolic claim that Christianity had triumphed over pre-Hispanic religions.

Supporters of the theory note that Coatlaxopeuh is sometimes rendered phonetically as “quatlasupe,” which bears a resemblance to the Spanish pronunciation of “Guadalupe.” Still, linguists and historians remain divided, and many are skeptical that the Nahuatl term accurately explains the title used at Tepeyac.

Whatever the origin of the name itself, the Christian meaning associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe is unmistakable. In her role as the Mother of Christ, she stands firmly within the biblical tradition of the woman whose offspring defeats the serpent — a truth that transcends questions of language or etymology.

Bishop Robert Barron has explained that the Lady of Tepeyac appears not only as a mother, but also as a warrior. When she told Juan Diego, “I am the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God,” she was doing more than identifying herself. She was actively dethroning and delegitimizing any false claimants to divine authority.

Her image reinforces that message. Standing before the sun and upon the moon, with the stars of heaven spread across her cloak, the Lady of Tepeyac asserts her superiority over some of the cosmic forces that were worshipped in the Aztec religious world.

What followed the apparition is often described in dramatic terms, and with good reason, though the historical reality is more complex. In the decades after Guadalupe, large numbers of Indigenous peoples embraced Christianity, sometimes with striking speed. The devotion to the Virgin of Tepeyac played a significant role in that process, offering a figure who spoke across cultural boundaries and addressed deep spiritual longings.

It is true that the end of prehispanic religious practices such as human sacrifice cannot be attributed to a single event alone. The Spanish conquest, missionary efforts, political upheaval, and Indigenous responses all shaped the transformation of religious life in the region. Conversion was not uniform, nor was it free from tension or coercion. And still, within this tangled history, Guadalupe stands out as a moment of encounter rather than conquest — a Marian devotion that helped redirect religious imagination away from fear and ritual violence and death, and toward a faith centered on mercy, life, and the dignity of the human person.

Our Lady of Guadalupe fulfilled the words of God in the book of Genesis, "she shall crush thy head" (Genesis 3:15).