Jesus in the Sky and the Flowering Crown of Thorns

Two miracles occurred in the town of Ocotlan and continue to baffle believers and non-believers alike.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert Viitto.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome and we've been beneath those to episode number seven
six of Mexico Unexplained, where we examined the magic, the
mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. I'm your host, Robert Biddo.
In December of twenty ten, television crews from all over
Latin America came to the town of Ocotelan in the
Mexican state of Jalisco. Among them was Spanish language broadcast

(01:21):
Giant Univision, which sent a film crew from their show
Premier in Pacto to cover what people throughout the region
were considering to be a miracle. In the Basilica of
Our Lord of Mercy, something unusual was happening on the
main crucifix. Behind the altar, the crown of thorns on
the head of Jesus began to sprout flowers. The crown,

(01:45):
which had been made out of a thorny desert plant
that had been twisted into a circle, had been taken
off the Jesus when Father Miguel Anel Gonsalez noticed a
sprout which had appeared in the back of the crown
in early November of twenty ten. By the time of
the filming of the Primer Impaco episode about this event,

(02:08):
the Crown of Thorns had been removed from the Jesus
and put under glass and monitored by security cameras. When
the television crew filmed the sacred object, it had several
pink trumpet like flowers coming out of it and a
few other green shoots with leaves. Faithful from the town
of Ocotelan and the surrounding areas formed a line to

(02:31):
view the crown and the flowers. Seemed extra special because
it was the week before Christmas. The resident priest talked
briefly about the history of this specific crown of thorns.
It was given to the church as a gift in
nineteen ninety four by a new bride after a wedding.
The crown was placed at the foot of the cross

(02:53):
and then moved to rest on the preying hands of
a statue of the Virgin of Dolores. From the verge statue.
It was moved to its rightful place on top of
the Cristo on the main crucifix in the basilica. In
addition to Father Migalanquell, the univision reporter also spoke with
two parishioners about what they were witnessing. Herodo Moreno stated,

(03:18):
calmly and evenly, quote, it's a message, because everything is
pretty bad. I think that this is a sign end quote.
Juan Manuel Nuniez, an older man with tears in his eyes,
trembled when he told the reporter quote, I am a believer,
a believer in God. It's a warning, a warning of

(03:39):
something end quote. Like most people who visited the object,
the locals interviewed were not sure exactly what they were seeing,
only that it was somehow supernaturally inspired and seemed to
underscore their already strong religious beliefs. Father Migalanqell assured the
poet public that the church was going to great lengths

(04:02):
to investigate the phenomenon, and promised to keep the relic
under glass with round the clock monitoring by security cameras
to prove that the crown was not being tampered with.
The Premier Inpacto show ended by telling its viewers that
the University of Guadalajata was going to make a thorough
scientific investigation of the crown and would make its findings public.

(04:26):
The intrusion of science into the realm of faith was
largely ignored by the multitudes of people who came to
the Basilica to witness what they were claiming was the
second miracle at Okotlan, the first one occurring on the
same spot some one hundred and fifty three years before.
The name Ocotelan comes from the language of the Aztecs nahwattle,

(04:51):
and it is a combination of two words okoto or
pine tree in English and Tlan, which means place in English,
place of the pine trees. The town sits on the
shores of Lake Chappala, where the Suma and Santiago rivers
pour into the lake. The climate is temperate, the air

(05:13):
is fresh, and the soils are rich. A thriving indigenous
settlement existed there when the Spanish first arrived in fifteen thirty,
and the area had been long occupied by the Otonkas Teschuesues, Teperuanes,
and Coanos. One of the first major battles of conquistore

(05:35):
Nuno de Gusman happened at Ocotelan, and when the local
native kingdom was defeated, the Spanish established a permanent presence, building,
a hospital, and a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of
the Immaculate Conception. Under the direction of the Franciscans, the
Virgin at Ocotelan quickly became known as the Patroness of

(05:57):
the Indians, and the building to house her became a
regional pilgrimage site. Parts of that chapel still exist today,
and it is considered to be one of the oldest
buildings in the Mexican state of Jalisco. By the mid
eighteen forties, the town had become known as a place
of vice and licentiousness, so the history goes, all of

(06:20):
that changed abruptly. On October second, eighteen forty seven, a
massive earthquake hit the town, leveling most buildings and causing
the rest to be uninhabitable. There was much misery and death,
and the survivors in this town of one thousand, five
hundred people were in a state of shock. In the

(06:40):
day following the quake, the mayor of Ocotlan, Juan Antonio Jimenez,
wrote a letter to the governor of the state of Jalisco.
The letter survives. The mayor writes, Yesterday, Saturday the second,
at seven thirty in the morning, a strong earthquake which
lasted more than five minutes was felt in this town.

(07:03):
It did not, however, cause any damage. The repetition, happening
between nine and ten o'clock on the same morning, was terrible.
In an instant, some of the town's buildings were knocked down,
and the others were completely destroyed or in imminent danger
of collapse. As of yesterday, forty six persons of both

(07:25):
sexes and of various ages had been found dead, and
it is not possible now to know with certainty the
number of injured or wounded who miraculously escaped the destruction.
It was not only the town that suffered this misfortune.
The same thing occurred in all the other places in
the municipality. There was terror and fright everywhere, especially when

(07:48):
rocks broke away from the hill and the wild animals
were terrified. The Mayor's last paragraph in this letter surely
rose the eyebrows of the governor of Hullsco, Mayor Jimenez, continues, quote,
this morning, your excellency, twenty four hours after the unfortunate events,

(08:10):
the perfect image of our Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross was seen between west and north, formed between two
clouds and lasting for half an hour, in which time
more than one thousand, five hundred people who were in
the plaza fell to their knees, performing acts of contrition
and crying to the Lord to show mercy. End quote.

(08:33):
What the mayor described would be later called the miraculous
appearance of El Signor de la Miserricordia, or in English,
our Lord of Mercy. According to the survivors of the town,
the day after the quake, a Sunday, everyone was gathered
in the Plaza de Armas of Ocotelan to celebrate an

(08:54):
open air mass because the ruined church was unfit for services.
An image of Jesus appeared in the clouds sometime during
the nine o'clock hour. This image has been described as
being everything from a fluffy cloud formation in the shape
of a cross to a glimmering perfect image of a

(09:15):
crucified Christ, on whose face was an expression combining love
and reassurance. The image was said to have hovered to
the northwest before slowly disappearing. People in the surrounding rural
areas also reported seeing the image of Jesus and the clouds.
Word of this miracle spread throughout the region, and okote

(09:38):
Lan became the focus of a new pilgrimage for people
wanting to venerate what was being called the Lord of Mercy.
By eighteen seventy five, a new church was built to
honor this manifestation of Jesus and was further expanded to
the Basilica complex that exists in okote Land to this day.

(09:59):
With t the event became more formalized and documented. In
eighteen ninety seven, for the fiftieth anniversary of the apparition,
Archbishop of Guadalajara, Pedro Losa Ipar Dave, felt it necessary
to take down written testimonies of the remaining thirty people
who witnessed the event in eighteen forty seven. By the

(10:23):
eighteen nineties, most of Mexico had heard of the apparition,
and the word of the miraculous appearance was gaining international interest.
Local church authorities sought to formalize and further legitimize the event,
and on September twenty ninth, nineteen eleven, Cardinal Jose de
Jesus Ortis Rodriguez, the Archbishop of Guadalajara, signed a document

(10:48):
acknowledging the eighteen ninety seven written testimonies and proclaiming the
event of eighteen forty seven as the miracle of Ocotelan.
In his pronouncement, the cardinal wrote, quote, we must acknowledge
as a historical fact, perfectly proven the apparition of the

(11:08):
blessed Image of Jesus Christ crucified, and that it could
not have been the work of hallucinations or fraud, since
it happened in broad daylight, in the sight of more
than two thousand people end quote. In addition, Cardinal Ortissi
Rodriguez established a formal feast day to recognize our Lord

(11:30):
of Mercy. In his proclamation, the cardinal continues, quote, townsfolk
must gather together in whatever manner possible, after purifying their
consciences with the holy sacraments of penance and Holy communion,
and solemnly swear in the presence of God for themselves

(11:51):
and their descendants that year after year they will celebrate
the October third anniversary end quote the following owing year,
nineteen twelve, the formal Feast to the Lord of Mercy began,
which starts every September twentieth and ends on the date
of the apparition October third, of full thirteen days of celebration, contemplation,

(12:16):
and contrition. What does the Vatican think of this event?
While not formally recognizing it as it has the appearances
of the Virgin Mary, Lords Guadalupe and Fatima, it has
given its tacit recognition of its miraculous nature. In nineteen

(12:36):
ninety seven, on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the appearance of Jesus in the sky, Pope John Paul
the Second sent an apostolic blessing to the people of Ocotelan,
acknowledging the importance of the event to many Mexican Catholics.
The first miracle at Ocotelan is the only legitimate appearance

(12:59):
of Jesus as an apparition in the entire world. Pilgrims
continue to visit the Basilica to see the place where
this event took place, and recently to see the second miracle,
the flowering crown of Thorns in the time. Since both
the appearance of Jesus in the sky and the unexpected

(13:20):
sprouting of the crown of thorns, many people have come
forth to debunk or re explain what has happened in Ocotelan.
The University of Guadalajara did issue its scientific explanation for
the miracle of the flowering crown in early twenty eleven.
In its comprehensive report, university scientists stated that the plant

(13:44):
from which the crown was made, known by its scientific
name Euphorbia milii, is a hardy desert plant that can
go years without water. Seeds may stay dormant for decades
and are activated by the slightest indications of moisture. So
after fifteen plus years of being inactive, the plant the

(14:08):
crown was made of came to life, presumably because of
humidity in the room or the coalescing of water droplets
on the back of the head of the statue on
which the crown rested. To the faithful, Although the story
may seem thoroughly explained and even well intentioned, the flowering

(14:28):
crown of Thorns remains a miracle. The appearance of Jesus
in the sky has gotten more scrutiny over the years,
simply because it happened so long ago, and there is
nothing that exists from that event, like the crown of
Thorns that can physically be tested. On the TV show
Extra Normal, shown on the La based Spanish language broadcast

(14:53):
television network Asteca America, the hosts discussed the eighteen forty
seven apparition over Okotlan. After a documentary segment presenting a
timeline and describing events, the scientists, a physicist and a
psychologist came up with standard explanations of mass hallucination and

(15:15):
tricks of light in the sky playing with the minds
of a beleaguered and desperate population. The show's resident parapsychologist,
Laura Ribas, had a different explanation for the events at Okotlan.
She said that the area is the site of an
energy vortex and a tonal focal point, and many paranormal

(15:39):
events have occurred in the area and will occur in
the area in the future. Indeed, the Franciscans established the
very popular version of the Immaculate Conception Shrine at Ocotelan
in the fifteen thirties for a reason. The location had
already been known to be a somewhat holy place. Whether

(15:59):
or not any or some parts of the miracles are true,
or whether scientific explanation is put forth, pilgrims will keep
making the trip to Ocotelan. The Jesus in the sky
and the flowering crown of thorns will always be in
the collective Mexican memory to connect the true believers to

(16:22):
the divine. Thank you once again for listening to another
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(16:45):
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until next time, Thank you and gracias.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Thank you, but listening to another episode of Make Mexico
Unexplained with host Robert Bitto. For show summary, relevant links,
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