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The Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico has shared the first photograph ever taken of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a Facebook post shared this November 14, the archdiocese explained how “on the afternoon of May 18, 1923, photographer Manuel Ramos had the honor of being the first to photograph the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe directly from Juan Diego’s ayate without the protective glass.”
The archdiocese explained that Ramos took this photo as “the opportunity arose thanks to changing the frame in addition to other repairs that the image needed for its conservation after the attack it suffered on Nov. 14, 1921, when a dynamite bomb was exploded beneath the icon.”
An article published by CWR explains how on the morning of Nov. 14, 1921, Luciano Perez Carpio, an employee of the Private Secretariat of the Presidency, “placed a bomb inside a floral arrangement on the altar a few feet from where the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe hung on a wall in the Old Basilica, today known as the Expiatory Church of Christ the King.”
At approximately 10:30 a.m. the bomb exploded. It damaged the altar steps and the brass candlesticks, but the Guadalupe suffered no damage whatsoever – the protective glass was not even broken, although there was extensive damage to the rest of the church.
A Holy Year commemorating the attack began on November 14, 2021, in the Guadalupe Basilica, and will conclude this coming November 20.
