Our Lady of Guadalupe

José Ignacio Heredia y Sarmiento (1779–1809).
Sermon panegirico de la gloriosa aparicion de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.
Mexico: Doña María Fernández Jáuregui, 1803. (BRB1309)

Composed in tribute to the Virgin Mary, this sermon was delivered by its author in the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico City. The text praises the many blessings brought to Mexico by the Virgin of Guadalupe, who miraculously had appeared in a vision experienced in 1531 by Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474–1548), a Mexican Indian and Christian convert who was canonized as a saint in 2002. The published sermon was illustrated with six engraved plates: a plan of Mexico City as it appeared before the Spanish invasion; a view of the great temple of Mexico; traditional gymnasts; a human sacrifice; a gladiatorial combat; and the exhibited image of six traditional Mexican types, representing male and female farmers, a nobleman and a lady, a warrior, and a priest.