WHY OUR LADY
16TH CENTURY - 1594 - OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS
QUITO, ECUADOR
VISIONARY: Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (31)
NUMBER OF APPARITIONS: 4
FIRST APPARITION: February 2, 1594
LAST APPARITION: December 8, 1634
APPROVED: 1611 (For those apparitions to that point)
“Unbridled passions will give way to a total corruption of customs
because Satan will reign through the Masonic sects,
targeting the children in particular to ensure general corruption.”
SUMMARY
In the year 1594 of the 16th century, Our Lady of Good Success appeared in Quito, Ecuador, to a Spanish nun, Sister Mariana de Jesus Torres, whose little-known but extraordinary life has a direct connection with our days. These apparitions continued over 40 years and were approved by the local bishop during her lifetime.
The messages of Our Lady of Good Success spoke of the worldwide crisis in the Church and society that would begin in the 19th century and extend throughout the 20th century.
Our Lady also made many prophesies about the colony (Ecuador was under Spanish rule until the 19th century) and the Church, including a worldwide crisis of faith and morals in the Church and society that would begin in the 19th century and extend throughout the 20th century. She warned that there would be an almost total corruption of customs, and more. For example, she said:
1. There would be an almost total corruption of customs and Satan would rule almost completely by means of the Masonic sects.
2. In the Catholic Church the Sacraments would be profaned and abused, and the light of Faith would be almost completely extinguished in souls.
3. Truly religious souls would be reduced to a small number and many vocations would perish.
4. Great impurity would reign and people would be without any care for spiritual matters.
However, Our Lady also offered a solution to the crisis, namely, devotion to her under the title Our Lady of Good Success. She prophesied that this devotion would not begin to become well-known until the end of the 20th century. She promised that precisely when it seems evil has triumphed: “this will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet.”
This is a pretty clear reference to Genesis 3:15 and the self-same triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart promised centuries later at Fatima, Medjugorje, and other apparitions.
The prophesies of Our Lady of Good Success for our times are quite dire and, unfortunately, quite evident. By virtually every measurable standard, the Catholic Church has been in sharp decline almost everywhere in the world for decades, and many of Mary’s grim prophesies for our times are disturbingly accurate. It is common for various websites to concentrate on this sensational aspect.
However, the message of Our Lady of Good Success is not one of “doom and gloom”. On the contrary, it is a message of great hope and consolation; precisely because Our Lady did not prophesy the end of the world, but a marvelous restoration of what has been lost in the Church and the world.
BEFORE THE APPARITIONS
Mariana de Jesus Torres was born in 1563 in a small Spanish village in the Basque province of Vizcaya. Since the early dawn of her life, Mariana’s future was very clear to her. She would be a religious of the Order of the Immaculate Conception. There was nothing nor anyone that could dissuade her from the decision of giving herself to the life of love and sacrifice for which she felt inspired and destined by God.
In the early stage of its development, he Spanish colonial city of Quito, Ecuador, the local bishop and the townspeople decided to send a fervent request to Philip II, the King of Spain, for authorization to found the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception there in Quito. Philip, a pious king concerned for the interests of God and for the eternal salvation of his vassals in the distant colonies of the Americas, decided to personally prepare and administrate this religious enterprise. He chose five Franciscan Conceptionists from the province of Galicia for this responsibility. These chosen nuns had been tried in austerity and monastic observance and were under the direction of Mother Maria of Jesus Taboada. It was then up to them to carry the spirit and organization of the Order of the Immaculate Conception to Quito.
Mother Maria was Mariana’s aunt. When Mariana was told of the delicate mission entrusted to Mother Maria by the King, she pleaded and obtained from her aunt permission to go as a religious aspirant, forming part of the founding project in the city of Quito. Mariana’s parents reluctantly granted her permission to go on this perilous journey. Mariana was only thirteen years old, but she joyfully jumped at this opportunity even though it meant leaving her family and native land behind for an adventure filled with uncertainties and human fears. By renouncing those human ties that she loved so much, she became the sole property of Our Lord, enabling her to pick up the cross that God had designed for her and to follow His path of sorrow and sacrifice.
In the year 1576, they set sail from the seaport of Caciz, probably in one of the galleons left from the Invincible Armada. On the journey, Mariana was an unconquerable giant in the purity of her love for God and neighbor which burned within her young soul.
There were instances where Mother Maria thought of giving up the project and returning to Spain at the first opportunity. However, little Marianna reasoned with her and showed that she was committed before God and the King to proceed with the founding of the convent of the Immaculate Conception.
During the voyage, a great storm arose and a seven-headed serpent (Satan) arose from the sea to oppose the women on their mission. Then Our Lady appeared during the storm with the Christ child, holding a cross that had a lance at the end of it. Our Lady slew the serpent and the waters became calm. To this day the sisters in this order wear a badge to commemorate this event.
Mariana was undoubtedly the heroine in the great battle against the Prince of Darkness who spared no effort to stop them sensing this apostolate was destined to render to God much glory by populating heaven with many religious and providing the opportunity for spiritual advancement to many thousands of souls. The source of Mariana’s unshakable confidence was the Blessed Virgin who showed her that the battle foreseen by God in paradise in which the Woman would crush the pride of the infernal dragon, was carried out on a daily basis in the history of salvation. One of those battles had been fought that day while the devil tried with all his power to prevent the founding of their convent.
Once on land, the nuns felt a certain relief on being freed from the torment of constant danger in the sea and its pounding waves. However, there was little time for rest as they now had to face a steep, mountainous climb that caused fear and anguish in their already battered hearts. To reach Quito, the nuns valiantly scaled a rough and arid mountain range over 9,000 feet high through brush, over creeks, up depthless precipices. They also encountered countless hardships and dark sleepless nights spent in fear amid the howling of wild animals. As they struggled up the mountainside, they felt their strength slowly ebbing away and became distressed over their slow progress and the small amount of ground that they covered daily. Yet their tremendous effort and courage reached proportions of great heroism with the miraculous assistance of God. At last, on the morning of December 30, 1576, the nuns, with worn-out feet and aching bodies, trudged into Quito as the joy of the people and the sound of trumpets and drums resounded throughout the countryside proclaiming the triumph of the frail maidens. They all knew that establishment of the convent there in Quito would enrich the country with the distribution of divine gifts, a goal that Philip II had in mind.
A year later, on January 13, 1577, Father Anthony Jurado presided at the official founding ceremonies of the convent. He celebrated Holy Mass; received the religious profession of seven ladies, both Spanish and native, who on that occasion chose the religious state; renewed the vows of the Spanish foundresses and installed Mother Maria of Jesus Taboada in the office of abbess for the service of God in that new convent. And with them was Mariana of Jesus Torres who at the beginning of the history of the convent had already illuminated it with the light of her virtues.
On September 8, 1577, at the age of fourteen, immense happiness flooded Mariana’s heart as she entered the novitiate after having served the required time as an aspirant. On that day, Mariana divested herself of all human ornament and the pleasure it affords, and became clothed in her austere habit that, despite its mild colors of blue and white, would be a constant reminder of her spiritual death to the world and her confinement in the hallowed cloister of the convent.
Two years later, on October 4, 1579, Mariana pronounced the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and monastic seclusion (cloister) in the presence of Father Jurado, and the abbess, thereby completing her consecration to God. Then suddenly her sensible faculties became suspended and she entered into ecstasy. There she beheld Our Lord who lovingly confirmed His pleasure in accepting her as His spouse, and disclosed to her the future development of the convent through the centuries and the several vicissitudes that she would later experience in her own religious life. Jesus said to her: “I wish you to lead a life of immolation. Your life will be a continuous martyrdom.”
He made known to her all the tribulations, temptations and persecutions of all kinds that she would suffer, preserved only from temptations against purity. He told her that she would suffer not only for less sanctified souls, but also for the souls of the just. She was shown all the spiritual desolations: the abandonment by God, the withdrawal of consolations, in short, all the prolonged martyrdom of her crucified love.
All of Miriana’s biographers agree that in 1582, while she was in front of the tabernacle pouring forth the grief of her heart, which had been offended and calumniated by one of her religious, she heard a strange noise in the church and the saw Our Lord emerge from the tabernacle in His actual size as He was on Mount Calvary. Over His head hung three swords.
Our Lady of Good Success explained to her that these swords represented the three sins of heresy, blasphemy, and impurity that would prevail in the twentieth century world. Our Lady then asked Mariana if she would be willing to sacrifice herself for the people of the century. When she answered in the affirmative, the three swords moved away from Christ and plunged into the seer’s heart and produced such an excruciating pain that she fell dead to the ground.
Her nuns carried her to her bed and summoned the doctor, Mr. Sancho who examined her and failing to revive her, declared that Mariana was truly dead. The Franciscan fathers hastened to the convent with the most eminent theologians and Friar Diego, a lay brother who was considered to be a contemplative saint. No sooner had he entered the deceased’s cell and began to pray, than he entered into a state of ecstasy. Brother Diego was shown that Mariana would be returned to life.
Before this occurred, Our Lord presented two crowns to her; the first, of ineffable glory and the other, of lilies intertwined with thorns. He asked her to choose, either to remain in heaven in the enjoyment of its perfect bliss, or to return to earth and there continue to suffer the miseries of this corruptible and sinful world, full of sorrows and calamities, just as she had been warned it would be on the day of her religious profession.
Knowing that she had been destined to form and educate the new religious and to be the supporting column of the community, Mariana chose the painful way, the crown of lilies and thorns. Heeding the call of the Franciscan director, the angelic and heroic religious opened her eyes anew to the life of this world.
Another extraordinary fact that was confirmed under oath by the doctor, The Friars Minor, and the nuns of the convent occurred 0n September 17, 1588, as Mariana was saying her customary prayers at midnight in her room, prostrate on the floor, when suddenly she uttered a cry of pain while her whole body shook violently. On hearing the cry, the mother abbess hastened to her and, placing her arm around her, carried her to her bed. When the trembling of the body did not cease, the other sisters became alarmed and rushed to her side. Mother Frances of the Angels, the convent nurse, examined her hands and saw that on her palms were marks similar to holes in which something had been driven; the same appeared on the soles of her feet in the place where Christ had been pierced in His Passion. Over her heart was a purple spot and a red scar like a cut of a sword or lance and her heartbeat was so loud that it could be heard at a distance.
All this seemed to indicate that Our Lord had given her interiorly the imprint of His wounds. During this time her body was stiff and immovable; in this state of veritable martyrdom. Dr. Sancho was summoned and said that because of the penitential life that she led, the marrow of her bones had dried and only her heart was still living.
The good nuns wanted to exchange the raw hide strewn with bloody tacks on which Mariana was accustomed to sleep for a comfortable mattress. But the doctor would not allow it, saying for a person accustomed to a hard bed, a softer one would do more harm that good.
Her sickness lasted five months. Although her face lost its rosy color and became ashen, she would blush when obliged to submit to washing and treatments. Her body became one single wound. Not able to swallow any nourishments, she lived on liquids alone.
As if this were not enough, Our Lord withdrew His heavenly light and consolation and allowed her spirit to be plunged into a veritable hell of forsakenness and solitude. The devil appeared to her in the form of a serpent dancing around her cell and constantly repeating that everything in her life had been illusions, deceits and lies, and that her body was now his. Despite so much sorrow in soul and body, she never abandoned her prayers at midnight and at three in the morning.
For a few months in 1588, the use of her hands returned, allowing her free movement to attend to her own needs. But then toward September her condition worsened again, and on the second Wednesday her agony began and lasted for two more days. At twelve noon on Friday death became imminent; her face became disfigured, taking on the paleness and coldness of death. The nuns did not cease praying. At 3:30 in the afternoon, Mariana raised her eyes to heaven, then looked down at her crucifix, bathed it with her tears, pressed it against her heart and, heaving a last sigh, died. Doctor Sancho came and confirmed her death. The nuns prepared the precious body for burial by covering it with flowers. Placing her on a bier, they carried her to the lower choir where the people, who had already been informed of the sad event, were crowding into the church asking to view the body and to pray to her as their protecting angel.
On Saturday night the mother abbess discontinued the vigil and instructed the nuns to retire. The burial was set for Monday. When on the following day, Sunday, the nuns entered into the upper choir to recite the Little Office, they were shocked out of their wits. There was Mariana, whom they thought dead, praying with her usual fervor. The abbess asked Mariana to tell her what had happened. To which Mariana answered, “Look at me, Mother. It is truly I, alive, healthy and strong.”
After the astonishment had subsided, the interrogation by Father Jurado and the abbess began. Mariana replied that on dying Our Lord had placed her soul in another state of purification. She stood by her corpse while suffering a mystical purgatory that lasted until three o’clock Sunday morning, the same hour that Christ had resurrected. He then placed her soul back in her body, giving it the same vigor and strength as before. She sat up by herself, climbed off the bier and put out a candle that had fallen to the ground and threatened to start a fire. The rest of the story they witnessed themselves.
Our Lord had granted her life a whole year of sickness, rewarding her with a complete recovery. Mariana understood that God had restored her to life so that she could experience in her own person how sweet and meritorious it is to suffer and endure pain in imitation of Christ, patient and sorrowful, becoming one with Him in the holocaust for the love of souls.
Mother Maria of Jesus Taboada was thirty-three years old when she founded the convent. She died on October 4, 1593, the feast day of St. Francis, and sixteen years after deeply establishing both the religious spirit of the cloister and also an aura of respectability. But the terrible weight of the responsibilities, anguish and worries inherent of foundress and abbess severely undermined her health. Her heart just could no longer keep pace with her spiritual vigor. Unexpectedly, in a unanimous and undisputed election, the chapter chose the humble person of Mariana of Jesus Torres as the new abbess. On hearing the proclamation, Mariana fell to her knees and with folded hands begged the community to excuse her from such an office, but she was forced to accept under obedience; and this began her ascent to the Mount of the Cross. Mother Mariana was elected and installed as abbess in 1593 at the age of thirty.
THE APPARITIONS
On February 2, 1594, as Mariana was praying to the Blessed Mother under this title of Our Lady of Good Success, she was granted the singular privilege of an apparition from her and Our Lady of Good Success stated:
“I am Mary of Good Success, whom you have invoked with such tender affection. Your prayer has pleased me very much.Your faith has brought me here. Your love has invited me to visit you.....”
Our Lady told Mother Mariana of the terrible time we were to live in—that is the Twentieth Century. During these apparitions, many prophecies were told. These prophecies spoke of the corruption, oppression and unavailability of the sacraments. She spoke of the crisis in the Church particularly in the clergy.
On January 16, 1599, Our Lady of Good Success commanded a statue to be made to her likeness stating:
“...now I ask and command you to have a statue to be made for the consolation and preservation of my convent and for those faithful souls of that epoch during which there will be a great devotion to me, for I am the Queen of Heaven under many invocations...With the making of this statue I will favor not only my convent, but also the people of Quito—and all the people throughout the centuries.”
Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana that this statue was to be made, for these reasons:
“First, so that men in the future might realize how powerful I am in placating Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner who comes to me with a contrite heart.For I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love.”
“And second ...when tribulations of spirit and sufferings of the body oppress them and they seem to be drowning in this bottomless sea let them gaze at my holy image and I will always be there ready to listen to their cries and soothe their pain.Tell them that they should always run to their Mother with confidence and love...”
Over the course of ten years, Mother Mariana struggled with the issue of the making of the statue. Many obstacles prevented the sculpting of it. One obstacle was a fear of idolatry on the part of the native people in Quito. Another was Mother Mariana’s personal fear of not being believed and putting the convent in jeopardy.
In the year 1610, Miriana was able to gain the strength and courage to ask the Bishop for this request of a statue to be built. The bishop being recently warned in a dream about his upcoming and imminent death was more than willing to agree to this request. Our Lady of Good Success had requested that a certain sculptor, Francisco del Castillo, who was known not only for his artistic ability but also for his virtue and devotion to the Blessed Mother, create the statue. This sculptor worked long and hard on this statue. When he was about to put the finishing coat of paint on the statue he decided he would go to find the best paints he could acquire that would be the most fitting for the faces of Mother of God and the Infant Jesus. While he was gone something miraculous happened. From the very first apparition, Our Lady had promised that she, herself, would see to the completion of this statue. While the sculptor was away, Mother Mariana and the other sisters went to the choir loft to implore Our Lady of Good Success to keep her promise. The night before the artist was to return, Mother Mariana was alone praying in the choir loft. Suddenly Our Lady of Good Success appeared with the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael along with St. Francis.
Acknowledging their Queen, The Archangels bowed and intoned this prayer:
St Michael said: “Hail to Thee, Mary Most Holy Daughter of God the Father”
St Gabriel said: “Hail to Thee, Mary Most Holy Mother of God the Son”
St Raphael said: ”Hail to Thee, Mary Most Holy, Most Pure Spouse of the Holy Ghost”
All together they chanted: “Hail to Thee, Mary Most Holy Temple and Sacrarium of the Most Holy Trinity”
Then, in the twinkling of an eye the statue was completed. The statue became animated as Mary walked into the statue itself. Our Lady of Good Success began to sing the “Magnificat”. This occurred on the morning of January 16, 1611 at 3am. A choir of heavenly spirits began to sing “Salve Sancta Parens” which awakened the rest of the convent. The sisters rushed to the choir loft and found the statue transformed and surrounded by a heavenly light. What a surprise awaited Francisco del Castillo when he returned with his paints in hand to finish the statue that very next day!
In 1619, in an apparition, Our Lord asked Mother Mariana to be a victim soul for our times. We too in a very special way have been called to imitate her by virtue of the grace we have been given to know the Truth—the gift of knowledge in the Faith that we have undeservedly received. We too must imitate her and carry our daily crosses with “valor and perseverance” for the good of the Church. For as Christ stated to Mother Mariana: “For all times I have need of valiant souls to save my Church and the prevaricating world.”
Promises and Prophesies of our times made by Our Lady of Good Success:
“The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings and those who sacrifice themselves for the Church and their country will be counted as martyrs. In order to free men from the bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of my most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration, will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence of the just. There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
‘The Pope’s infallibility will be declared a dogma of Faith by the same Pope chosen to proclaim the dogma of the mystery of my Immaculate Conception. he will be persecuted and imprisoned in the Vatican through the usurpation of the Pontifical States and through the malice, envy, and avarice of an earthly monarch.”
“Unbridled passions will give way to a total corruption of customs because Satan will reign through the Masonic sects, targeting the children in particular to ensure general corruption.”
“Unhappy, the children of those times! Seldom will they receive the sacraments Of Baptism and Confirmation. As for the sacrament of Penance, they will confess only while attending Catholic schools, which the devil will do his utmost to destroy by means of persons in authority.”
“The same will occur with Holy Communion. Oh, how it hurts me to tell you that there will be many and enormous public and hidden sacrileges!”
“In those times, the sacrament of Extreme Unction will be largely ignored.… Many will die without receiving it, being thereby deprived of innumerable graces, consolation, and strength in the great leap from time to eternity.”
“The sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with the Church, will be thoroughly attacked and profaned. Masonry, then reigning, will implement iniquitous laws aimed at extinguishing this sacrament. They will make it easy for all to live in sin, thus multiplying the birth of illegitimate children without the Church’s blessing….”
“Secular education will contribute to a scarcity of priestly and religious vocations.”
“The holy sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed, and despised, for in this both the Church and God Himself are oppressed and reviled, since He is represented by His priests.”
“The devil will work to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every way, working With baneful cunning to destroy the spirit of their vocation and corrupting many. Those who will thus scandalize the Christian flock will bring upon all priests the hatred of bad Christians and the enemies of the One, Holy, Roman Catholic, and Apostolic Church. This apparent triumph of Satan will cause enormous suffering to the good pastors of the Church…and to the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth who, a prisoner in the Vatican, will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of God Our Lord, asking for light, sanctity, and perfection for all the clergy of the world, to whom he is King and Father.”
“Unhappy times will come wherein those who should fearlessly defend the rights of the Church will instead, blinded despite the light, give their hand to the Church’s enemies and do their bidding. But when [evil] seems triumphant and when authority abuses its power, committing all manner of injustice and oppressing the weak, their ruin shall be near. They will fall and crash to the ground.”
“Then will the Church, joyful and triumphant like a young girl, reawaken and be comfortably cradled in the arms of my most dear and elect son of those times. If he lends an ear to the inspirations of grace–one of which will be the reading of these great mercies that my Son and I have had toward you–we shall fill him with graces and very special gifts and will make him great on earth and much greater in Heaven. There we have reserved a precious seat for him because, heedless of men, he will have fought for truth and ceaselessly defended the rights of the Church, deserving to be called ‘martyr.’”
“At the end of the nineteenth century and throughout a great part of the twentieth, many heresies will be propagated in these lands.…”
“The small number of souls who will secretly safeguard the treasure of Faith and virtues will suffer a cruel, unspeakable, and long martyrdom. Many will descend to their graves through the violence of suffering and will be counted among the martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the country and the Church.”
“To be delivered from the slavery of these heresies, those whom the merciful love of my Son has destined for this restoration will need great will-power, perseverance, courage, and confidence in God. To try the faith and trust of these just ones, there will be times when all will seem lost and paralyzed. It will then be the happy beginning of the complete restoration….”
“In those times the atmosphere will be saturated with the spirit of impurity which, like a filthy sea, will engulf the streets and public places with incredible license.… Innocence will scarcely be found in children, or modesty in women.”
“He who should speak seasonably will remain silent.”
“There shall be scarcely any virgin souls in the world. The delicate flower of virginity will seek refuge in the cloisters.…Without virginity, fire from heaven will be needed to purify these lands.…”
“Sects, having permeated all social classes, will find ways of introducing themselves into the very heart of homes to corrupt the innocence of children. The children’s hearts will be dainty morsels to regale the devil.…”
“Religious communities will remain to sustain the Church and work with courage for the salvation of souls.… The secular clergy will fall far short of what is expected of them because they will not pursue their sacred duty. Losing the divine compass, they will stray from the way of priestly ministry mapped out for them by God and will become devoted to money, seeking it too earnestly.”
“Pray constantly, implore tirelessly, and weep bitter tears in the seclusion of your heart, beseeching the Eucharistic Heart of my most holy Son to take pity on His ministers and to end as soon as possible these unhappy times by sending to His Church the Prelate who shall restore the spirit of her priests.”
Instructions and Advice given to us by Our Lady and Our Lord:
Our Lady:
"Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which in religious houses destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of religious virtues and fraternal charity and that child-like simplicity which makes souls so dear to my Divine Son and to me, their Mother.”
"Remember the words of the Royal Prophet: 'How marvelous are the works of the Lord!' Be
convinced of this truth; teach and impress your daughters both living and those to come that they should love their divine vocations. Reveal to them the glorious place that God and I are saving for those who belong to Us, our heirs.”
"Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No one on the face of the earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents.”
"O, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!"
Importance of the Sacrament of Penance and the important role of priests:emphasized by Our Lady and Our Lord:
Our Lady
"See and contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievous is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing. O, alas! If priests were given to see directly that which you are now contemplating and were enlightened with the Light that now illuminates you, they would then recognize this gift!..."
Our Lord:
"For in all times I have need of valiant souls to save My Church and the prevaricating world."
Our Lord also made Mother Mariana understand more clearly than ever before that devotion to the Passion, to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady constitutes the support and mainstay of religious communities.
"Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons. For the latter are called, by the perfection of their state, to be the salt of the earth, the masters of truth, and the deflectors of Divine Wrath. Straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments..."
He also assured Mother Mariana that He was greatly pleased by those souls who take upon themselves the sublime task of suffering for the sanctification of the Clergy by means of their prayers, sacrifices and penances, and promised such souls a special glory in Heaven. The ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him: "to let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters – and even over cities – when those so near to Me who belong to Me reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful."
Imprudent admissions and internal abuses permitted by superiors are the ruin of communities:
"Such communities can only be preserved – while they exist – at the cost of much penance, humiliations and daily and solid practice of the religious who are good. Woe to these corrupt members during those times of calamity! Weep for them, beloved spouse, and implore that the time of so much suffering will be shortened."
He warned her that the Chastisement would be severe for those religious who squandered the many graces with their pride and vain glory to secure positions of power and rank and He especially condemned the lukewarm religious.
Mother Mariana saw that the greatest interior torments of the Sacred Heart were the ingratitude and indifference of those souls who, chosen among millions to be His spouses and ministers, left Him in the most absolute solitude. And this despite the fact that in the Holy Sacrament, He would live under the same roof with His spouses and come into the hand of His priests at the simple call of their voices at the most solemn moment of the Consecration.
AFTER THE APPARITIONS
Beginning with the new year 1635 Mother Mariana’s condition worsened. The city doctor was called and warned the religious community of the gravity of the situation and of the nearing fatal end. Finding so much sorrow all around her, Mother Mariana beseeched them to resign themselves to the Divine Will. She then consoled them with these words, “I shall not leave you orphans, but shall be watching over you from heaven. There we shall all meet again to continue loving God and singing His praises forever.”
On January 14, 1635, the anniversary of the founding of the convent, when asked if she would like to receive the Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction, Mother Mariana said “The time has not yet come”. “I shall most joyfully receive it on the sixteenth, the last day of my life.” Also on this date, Miriana’s loving nurse, Zoila Rose of Mariana of Jesus, had begged Mariana to take her with her when she leaves this earth to which Mariana answered, “Ask this grace of the Lord and, if it be His will, prepare yourself that we may go.
”On January 16, 1635, Mariana asked for the last sacraments. And, she announced in private to her loyal nurse, Zoila Rose: “My little Rose, you need not be sad for you are going with me.”
As the end neared, Mother Mariana asked “as a last favor that I be granted to die on the ground in imitation of my father Saint Francis.” At this, mother abbess and her nuns immediately brought her down from her humble bed and placed her on the ground. There on her knees, she received the Holy Eucharist with manifestations of intense love and veneration.
Following this Father Guardian administered the sacrament of Extreme Unction; after anointing each of the bodily senses, and Mother Mariana made an act of contrition which edified all with her piety. Father Guardian then asked Mariana to tell them at which hour she was to die.
Mother Mariana said: “My Father and most dear sisters, I give thanks to God once again for allowing me to receive the holy sacraments and I pray that all my daughters here present and those to come have the same advantage. Unfortunately throughout the centuries, some will die without the sacraments due to the negligence of many abbesses, for whom, on this account, Divine Judgment has reserved a special punishment. To answer the question you ask, at exactly three o’clock this afternoon, my soul will leave its mortal bindings and fly to heaven.”
At three o’clock in the afternoon, on the height of Mount Calvary, Our Lord Jesus Christ expired, thus bringing His redeeming work to an end.
At exactly three on the afternoon of January 16, 1635, on the heights of the Andes in the city of Quito, Mother Mariana of Jesus Torres expired, thus completing the foundation of the Royal Convent where thousands of souls were to be saved, and other thousands from that city and region were also to obtain their salvation for centuries to come, thanks to the prayers, penances and sacrifices of those nuns. Keeping the right proportions between what is divine and what is human, we may say that on both heights occurred a death of blood and love.
Mother Mariana lived the seventy-two years of her life in the isolation of prayer, penance and the fervent love of God and His Blessed Mother. Following her interment she lived imprisoned in the dark shadows of her cloister. For three hundred years only the dust disturbed the silence of her tomb. Always the model of humility while she lived, she now reposed in the humility of the dust and the forgetfulness of those here below who never raised the burial cloth to contemplate the incredible beauty of this virgin soul.
In 1906, a miracle occurred before the eyes of the abbess, Mother Dolorosa del Coregio, that would wash the consciences of her daughters and purify the masters of theology of their false doctrines; that would pave the way for justice in paying a debt to the foundress of the convent and most important to bring to life the devotion to Our Lady of Good Success for the devotion to the Mother of God is the only lifeboat for us in this universal shipwreck in which the twentieth century is drowning.
In an effort to facilitate the remodeling of the convent, the centuries old sarcophagus of Mother Mariana was opened. To their utter amazement, they discovered the whole and incorrupt body of Mother Mariana of Jesus. Even her white habit and black headdress had escaped the ravages of vermin and insects. Her face had a natural color, her mouth half-opened so one could see the freshness of her tongue. Her eyes closed and adorned with eyelashes, the ears flexible, her fair hair soft and flowing. An exquisite aroma of lilies emanated from her whole body. Various instruments of penance and other personal objects of Mother Mariana had been placed in the pockets of the green silk lining of her habit by the Mother Abbess Mariana of Saint Dominic and her advisory council, with the approval of the Franciscan Fathers, so that they might serve as valuable relics of their faithful sister, whose glory will be justly exalted and known in the twentieth century.
Our Lady of Good Success is asking us to be faithful to the Church—to pray for the restoration as Mother Mariana did four hundred years ago for us. We must unite our prayers together and beg her for protection until we see the full restoration of the Church. We do not know how much longer it will be before that happens. But one thing is certain, the situation is grave; it may get graver still before we see Our Lady of Good Success triumphant. May we be granted the graces of perseverance and valor to carry this cross together to save the Church and this sinful world.
APPROVAL
In 1611, the local bishop gave his approval to the apparitions that had occurred to that point.
Mother Mariana has been named “Servant of God” and the cause for canonization is on-going.
The convent church has been named an archdiocesan Marian sanctuary in 1991, making it an official place of pilgrimage.
SOURCES
http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/quito/index.html
A Spanish Mystic in Quito: Sor Mariana de Jesus Torres by Msgr. Luis E. Cadena y Almeida
The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc., PO Box 341, Hanover, Penn. 17331
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1164/7336/files/message-for-our-times.pdf (Taken from “The Testament of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres” January 16th, 1635, which she read on her deathbed where she expired at 3:00pm, the same time as Our Lord.
https://olrl.org/ Our Lady of the Rosary library
http://www.olrl.org/prophecy/goodsuccess.shtml