Miguel Sánchez (1594 – 1674) was a Novohispano priest, writer and theologian. He is most renowned for the 1648 publication of Imagen de la Virgen María, a theological interpretation of the 1531 apparition of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe that many contend is the first written documentation of the event. While he has been credited with originating the cult the attribution is unlikely given that the chapel at Tepeyac dates to the 1550s and the "Tepeaquilla, now called Guadalupe" is mentioned in the chronicle of Bartolomé de las Casas. Nonetheless, D.A. Brading, a scholar of Mexican history, notes: "even if he did not initiate the devotion, he determined the manner in which the image was exalted and justified."[1] Sánchez was born in New Spain (today's Mexico) and studied at the Royal and Pontifical University in Mexico City. He sought teaching positions but did not get them. He joined the oratory in 1622 and served as chaplain of the chapel of Our Lady of Los Remedios.[2] His work makes use of the typology of Augustine of Hippo, although applying it not to events in the New Testament but rather to events alleged to have occurred the previous century in Mexico. He was buried at the shrine to Guadalupe having been her lifelong devotee and the first of the "four evangelists" of the Guadalupan apparition.
References
- ^ Brading, D.A. (2001). Mexican Phoenix Our Lady of Guadalupe:Image and Tradition Across Five Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 052180131.
- ^ Matovina, Timothy (2003). "Guadalupe at Calvary: Patristic Theology in Miguel Sanchez's Imagen De la Virgen Maria". Theological Studies 64 (4): 795+.
