Our Lady of the serpent who is crushed

During the first world war, local farmers in France became accustomed to the Tommies murdering their language. They would put up notices saying "Napoo Doolay" (Il n'ya plus du lait) or Napoo Doofs (Il n'ya plus d'oeufs) if they were out of milk or eggs.

Something similar happened in Mexico with the title of Our Blessed Lady as she appeared to St Juan Diego. The name in the Nahualt dialect was "Coaatlaxopeu" which, a Mexican assured me, is pronounced "quatlasupe". The was corrupted by the Spanish to "Guadalupe".

The interesting thing is that the original name in Nahualt means "crushed serpent". So Our Lady of Guadalupe is in fact "Our Lady of the serpent who is crushed", which can be taken to refer to the fulfilment of the prophecy of the "Protoevangelium" of Genesis 3.15, which St Jerome rendered:
Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius
(I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.)

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

SPUC Clergy information day

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Saint Gabriel