Juan Diego
1474-1548 16th century Feast day: December 9
The little one whom God chooses as messenger, who dares to voice his sense of unworthiness without shirking.
Who was Juan Diego?
An Indigenous Mexican of the conquest era, a convert to Christianity, he was walking to Mass when the Virgin appeared to him on Tepeyac hill, speaking to him in Nahuatl, his own language. Sent to carry the message to an incredulous bishop, he judged himself unworthy of such a mission. The early account called the Nican Mopohua preserved his words, and the image left on his cloak became the heart of a continent's faith.
In their own words
I am only a small man, a rope, a little ladder, the tail, the leaf; my Lady, send someone more esteemed.
My Lady, my Queen, my littlest daughter, here I am.