Miguel Sánchez

Who was Miguel Sánchez?

Miguel Sánchez was a Novohispanic priest, writer and theologian. He is most renowned as the author of the 1648 publication Imagen de la Virgen María, a description and theological interpretation of an apparition to Juan Diego of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe which is the first published narrative of the event. The precise nature of the cult before that date and whether the tradition as to the apparition dates back to 1531, constitute a vexed historical problem. The existence of a cult of the Virgin Mary at a chapel at Tepeyac, focussed on a painted cult image of the Virgin and enjoying a reputation for miraculous healing, was certainly established by 1556. Professor Brading, a scholar of Mexican history, noted of Sánchez: "even if he did not initiate the devotion, he determined the manner in which the image was exalted and justified."

Sánchez was born in New Spain and studied at the Royal and Pontifical University in Mexico City. He sought teaching positions but did not get them. On various occasions he served as chaplain of the chapel of Our Lady of Los Remedios, and in 1662 he joined an archconfraternity of secular priests which was later constituted as the first Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in Mexico.