Amherst, NY -- Today (Dec. 12) is the 471st anniversary of the miracle of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" in Mexico, but researchers are saying those who believe in the miracle are pretty "lupe."

As the legend goes, the Virgin Mary appeared to an Aztec man named Juan Diego and told him to relay a message to the bishop that a temple should be erected on Mt. Tepeyac in her honor. To prove Diego wasn't lying, the Virgin imprinted an image of herself on his cloak as a sign.

But according to senior researcher at "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine who examined the cloak in 1985, it's a fraud. Joe Nickell says infrared-photos revealed sketchmarks on the cloak and cracks in the image that indicate the image was painted.

He says the most recent research debunking the miracle comes from restoration expert Jose Sol Rosales, who in 2002 stepped forward with evidence that showed the image was made with paint.

Nickell says science has never proven a miracle, and, admittedly, no one would know what would constitute a miracle. Still, one thing he's sure of is that "it wouldn't look like anything ordinary like a human painting."

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