Page 10 - Guadalupe of Mexico in Spain

Section 08. The Guadalupan oath. Patroness of New

Spain and protector of the Monarchy

Allegory of the Patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe over New Spain
Joseph Sebastian Klauber (1700-1768) and Johann Baptist Klauber (1712-1787)
Etching and burin c. 1754
Bienes propiedad de la Nación Mexicana. Secretaría de Cultura. Dirección General de Sitios y
Monumentos del Patrimonio Cultural. Acervo del Museo de la Basílica de Guadalupe

In 1746, after a devastating epidemic, the ecclesiastical chapter and civil council took a joint oath
recognising La Guadalupana as the principal patron of New Spain, so generating a sense of belonging
and territorial unity in the viceroyalty. This judicial status gave rise to an unprecedented network of legal
representatives who upheld the cause overseas, to the point where the Virgin’s patronage was recognised
and proclaimed by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754 and the feast day of La Guadalupana thenceforth inscribed
in the liturgical calendar. The iconographic allegory of the feast associates the eagle coat-of-arms with
the personification of the realm in the figure of a richly attired indigenous princess shown over the
ancient attributes of Moctezuma’s empire.