Feast: February 2
(This is a compilation from various Internet Sources)
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Part 2»
Introduction
Mother Mariana’s last
testament stated that she left her life story, written under obedience, to her
spiritual directors and bishops. This account received the approbation of
Bishop Pedro de Oviedo, the tenth Bishop of Quito. After her death, her
biography was also written by her spiritual director and confessor, Friar
Francisco Anguita, O.F.M. These documents and the lives of all the
Founding Mothers were preserved in a large volume titled El Cuadernon.
Based on these source
documents, in 1790 Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira, Franciscan Provincial in Quito and
director of the Royal Convent, wrote the 400-page book entitled “The Admirable
Life of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres,” a Spanish Sister and one of the
Foundresses of the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception of the City of
St. Francis of Quito. As a young Portuguese solider pursuing a promising
military career, Pereira was converted by Mother Mariana, who appeared to him
in his barracks and told him “Manuel, young soldier, leave this earthly
army and enlist yourself among the sons of the Seraphim of Assisi, so that, to
your gain and advantage, you might fight under his banner. This army is
superior to yours, and you will not regret your decision.”
This document was
written by the Franciscan Provincial, who himself died in the odor of sanctity.
Written with devotion in the style of Franciscan asceticism, it is a remarkable
work that transmits much of the spirit of the Holy Church and the virtues of
the religious life. It details Mother Mariana’s sufferings, her numerous
mystical experiences and the many prophecies Our Lady revealed to this
favored soul regarding the future of the Catholic Church, the world, the
Ecuadorian nation, the Franciscan Order and the Royal Convent of the Immaculate
Conception.
The life of Mother
Mariana is so extraordinary that it seems necessary to clarify some points here
to avoid confusion for the reader:
- Mother Mariana did, indeed, die
three times. Historic and documented evidence record that this holy
religious truly died in 1582 and returned to life. She then
continued to live until a second death on Good Friday of 1588; two days
later, on Easter Sunday morning, she was resurrected again. She
finally died on January 16, 1635.
- Mother Mariana was chosen as
Abbess of the Convent numerous times during her lifetime. Therefore,
to conform to English usage, she would at times be called Mother, and
other times, Sister. However, in this work the title “Mother” is
always applied to her and the other Founding Mothers as a sign of respect
following the style in the original manuscripts.
- The number of visions and
mystical favors granted for 40 years to Mother Mariana by heaven as well
as the miracles that graced her life are too numerous to recount in a
small work. Therefore, this summary will
make a brief sketch of her remarkable life and describe only the most
important visions and prophecies of Our Lady.
Victim for the 20th Century
It was February 2, 1634, and a daughter of St. Francis of Assisi was praying at midnight in the chapel of her beloved Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Quito, Ecuador. This holy sister, who is linked mysteriously to present times by the visions the Holy Virgin showed her of our century, had offered herself as a victim for the 20th century. At the close of her life, Our Lady appeared to tell her that she would die in one year, and to promise her that the great marvels and prodigies with which she and her Convent had been favored would remain hidden and unknown until the end of the twentieth century.
Overwhelmed with love
for her Convent and distressed at the many abuses and bad-spirited religious
“who would infiltrate the Convent in the sad times ahead,” she boldly begged
her heavenly Mother for the impossible: to allow her to live into this epoch in
order “to impede in her Convent the great evils reserved for those ill-fated
days.”
“By the divine power,
nothing is impossible, and thou can fix the longevity of the life of a human
creature in centuries rather than years,” she pleaded in this difficult
petition, animated by a loving zeal to preserve the observance of the rule in
the Convent. At that moment, she fell into ecstasy, and the Divine Spouse
showed her an exact and unequivocal account of the dire times that the
community and Convent would pass through, above all in the middle of the 20th
century. It was manifested to her that the preservation of her material
life would not be necessary for this epoch, because from heaven, the Queen of
Heaven would intercede to assist in the crisis with a greater liberty and
authority than any human could impart. For the Church would be so
embattled and suffering during these times that only the divine power and the love of the Blessed Virgin that would sustain the faithful.
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| The Immaculate Conception |
- That “the dogma of Faith of the
Immaculate Conception of My Mother will be proclaimed during a time when
the Church would be strongly attacked.”
- That the ingratitude and
betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Our Lord
“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.”
- That 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 religious virtues by
those 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 so many
graces with their pride and vainglory to secure positions of power and
rank. He especially condemned the lukewarm: “Alas! If men, and above
all, priests and religious souls, would only realize how greatly I am
wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence
and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely
belong to Me… But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not
pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing – according to My example,
for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered
Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the
Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to
so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all
that takes place in My sacramental life!… Woe to souls like this! Woe!”
Thus ended this vision
during which the Child Jesus spoke at great length to the holy Conceptionist
Abbess, revealing many secrets that would take place in the times to come. The
Conceptionist religious had beseeched the Most Holy Virgin that her name be
unknown. The Mother of God assured her that her request would be heeded and
that only after three centuries of mysterious silence, her name would become
known. Devotion to Our Lady of Good Success would also wane, until almost
no mention would be made of it. But this devotion would resurge and Mother Mariana’s
story would be known at the end of the 20th century, the terrible century she
had previewed and for which she had offered herself as an expiatory
victim. Then, Our Lady promised, she would give her “good success” to
those who had recourse to her and fostered devotion to her under this
invocation.
This humble
Conceptionist religious was Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, who was born in
1563 in Spain and died in 1635 in the Convent of Quito, Ecuador that she had
helped to found. Twice she would die during her lifetime, and each time
Our Lord would restore her to life to continue her important mission.
During this extraordinary life, she was favored with innumerable and singular
gifts from heaven and received many prophecies of the future. What follows
is only a brief summary of her remarkable life and a few of the prophecies
revealed to her that concern our own times and that harmonize perfectly with
the better-known prophecies that Our Lady made at Fatima in 1917.
Mariana Francisca was
born in Spain in the province of Viscaya in 1563, the first-born child of Diego
Cadiz and Maria Berriochoa Alvarez. She was the delight of her parents,
for heaven had endowed her with beauty, a quick intelligence, a sweet nature,
and a strong inclination toward virtue. From childhood, she would shun
the games of adolescence and could be found instead in the chapel before the
Blessed Sacrament. It is the right of God to choose where and when he
will place His chosen souls whose disposition is to love and possess Him in
marvelous ways – even from childhood. Such was the soul of Mariana
Francisca.
Her confessor, a Friar
Minor, recognized the precocious religious spirit of the child and allowed her
to receive Communion at age 9, at a time when children generally made their
First Communion at age 13 or 14. On that much-awaited day, December 8,
1572, Mariana fainted in her joy after receiving the Sacred Host. During
this ecstasy, the Blessed Virgin explained to her the grandeur of the vow of
virginity, asked this of her, and told her she was destined to be a religious
of her Immaculate Conception in the New World. She accepted and felt her
soul inflamed with an ardent desire to carry out this mission. This
remarkable servant of God would remain faithful her whole life to a prophetic
mission that demanded an oblation of her whole being. From this point on,
her life was consecrated to realizing this design of Providence, and everything
outside this end lost meaning for her. She dedicated herself to prayer
and contemplation, as well as both interior and exterior mortification, and she
transformed her house into a kind of Convent in the service of her parents and
two younger brothers.
Vision
at Sea – The Founding of the Convent
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| Our Lady with Saint Beatrice da Silva, Foundress of the Franciscan Order of the Immaculate Conception, a branch of the Poor Clares |
In 1577, when Mariana
was only 13 years old, she left Spain in the company of her aunt, Mother Maria
de Jesus Taboada, and four other sisters, to found a branch of the Order of the
Immaculate Conception in San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). Our Lord
Himself invited the young girl to leave family and fatherland and to take up
the cross and great sufferings. “Strength and courage will not be lacking
to you,” He told the young girl. “I desire that your will be always
prepared to do Mine.”
No sooner had they
embarked than a tempest of unimaginable fury came over the sea. The ship
began to sink, and the sailors themselves were in despair. In the midst
of the fury, Mother Maria and the young Mariana saw a monstrous serpent with
seven heads in the ocean that was trying to destroy the ship. They heard
a terrible voice that said: “I will not permit this foundation. I
will not permit it to go forward. I will not permit it to endure until
the end of time, and I will persecute it unceasingly.” This was the voice
of the serpent crying out shortly before the waters became calm.
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| The Medallion, ordered by Mother Maria de Jesus Taboada, to commemorate Mariana’s vision of Our Lady who, with the help of the Blessed Sacrament and the hand of the Child struck and killed the serpent with seven heads. Since then, all the Sisters of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Quito wear it on the breast of their habit. |
Only the two holy
virgins understood why the storm had ended so mysteriously. As the waves
threatened to swallow the ship, Mariana fainted. However Mother Maria continued
her entreaties to Heaven and upon completion of her prayer, suddenly, the light
of the day made a breach in the darkness and the tempest calmed down. God had
answered her prayer. When Mariana woke up, she told her aunt that she has seen
a serpent larger than the sea and then a Lady of incomparable beauty appeared
“clothed in the sun, crowned with stars, carrying a beautiful Child in her
arms” and over her heart a monstrance of the Blessed Sacrament. In her hand she
carried a large cross of gold, which had a sharp lance at its end. The Lady,
with the help of the Blessed Sacrament and the hand of the Child, struck the
head of the serpent with the end of this cross so forcefully that the serpent
was slashed to pieces. To keep this event ever present in the memory of future
generations of sisters, Mother Maria ordered a round scapular with this
formidable vision of the Virgin and Child defeating the serpent to be
made. The Conceptionists of the Royal Monastery in Quito continue to this
day to wear this insignia on their habits as a lasting reminder of the
momentous event.
The young girl, who fell
into an ecstasy, then saw the many persecutions the future community would
suffer throughout the centuries because of the hatred of the serpent for this
Convent and the good it was destined to do. She saw that God would permit
this for the glory of His most holy Mother. She also was allowed to see
all the saintly religious who would blossom in this Convent, as well as the
unfaithful souls who would fail to correspond to the grace of their
vocations. It is believed that amid these grievous trials suffered while
still at sea, Our Lord granted to Mariana, still a young girl, the gift of
prophecy.
It is almost impossible
for us to understand the next phase of the life of the novice Mariana de Jesus
Torres. Hidden in the Heart of her Spouse, she was inflamed with a desire
for a life of immolation and sacrifice. Our Lord Himself told her the
practices she should carry out during the free hours of the community schedule
and the penances she should perform each week. Her severe disciplines,
sacrifices, fasting and prayer, all described in chapters of the manuscript,
appear daunting to the man of our century, who finds suffering something to avoid,
or, at best, to endure as austerely as possible.
Suffering is highly
ennobling. On this road of suffering in union with Christ, man finds the
fullest meaning of his life, and he discovers that frequently it is in the
great sufferings of life, accepted with a supernatural disposition, that he can
find a joy which the greatest pleasures do not give. Further, he
discovers in suffering an interior state that makes him capable of soaring to
heights impossible for one who does not suffer. Only when man embraces
great sufferings can his horizons expand to grand metaphysical and religious
heights and his spirit advance to a superior state. At the end of Sister
Mariana’s life when her sanctity was acknowledged in the community and Convent,
she would look back with nostalgia and sigh for the days of persecution and
suffering.
First Resurrection of
Venerable Mariana
While the Founding
Mothers of the Convent admired Sister Mariana’s perfect observance of the rule
and practice of virtue, there were other sisters who were stirred by
jealousy. Sister Mariana suffered insults and persecutions from these
sisters without ever trying to justify herself or protest. Only at the
foot of the Tabernacle did she confide her secret sorrows to her Beloved. One
day in 1582, after a particularly bitter incident with one of her sisters,
Sister Mariana went to the feet of Jesus Christ communicating to Him her
torment and begging Him for fortitude. While she was talking to Jesus, at a
moment, she heard an overwhelming sound, and saw that the whole Church had
become immersed in darkness, as from dust and smoke. Looking up, Sister Mariana
saw the main altar illuminated by full day. The Tabernacle opened and Christ
Himself emerged, suffering, as on Golgotha in His agony with the Blessed
Virgin, St. John and Mary Magdalene at His feet.
Seeing this, the humble
virgin, believing herself to be at fault, prostrated herself on the ground with
her arms extended in the form of a cross, exclaiming: “Lord, I am the guilty
one. Punish me and pardon your people.”
Her Guardian Angel made
her rise, saying: “No! You are not to blame. Arise and approach, for God
desires to reveal to you a great secret.”
The Blessed Virgin, at
His feet, was shedding tears. Sister Mariana asked her, “My Lady, am I to blame
for this sadness?”
“No,” she replied, “it
is not you, but the criminal world.” Then as Our Lord began His Agony,
she heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying, “This punishment will be for
the 20th century.” She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ.
On each was written, “I shall punish heresy”, “I shall punish blasphemy”, “I
shall punish impurity.” With this, she was given to understand all that would
take place in the present era.
The Holy Virgin
continued: “My daughter, will you sacrifice yourself for the people of
this time?” Sister Mariana replied, “I am willing.” And immediately the
swords moved away from the agonizing Christ and buried themselves in the heart
of Sister Mariana, who fell dead through the violence of the pain.
Sister Mariana had
indeed died and stood before the judgment seat of God, Who found no fault in
her and invited her to receive the crown prepared for her since the beginning
of the world. At the same time, her distraught sisters implored heaven to
restore the life of this exemplary religious. Our Lord presented Sister
Mariana with two crowns: one of immortal glory of indescribable beauty,
the other of white lilies surrounded by thorns. Sister Mariana understood that
if she would choose the former, she would remain in celestial glory. With
the other, she would return to suffer in the world. Her first desire was
to remain in heaven to be assured of her salvation and to enjoy the unsurpassed
happiness of the Beatific Vision. During her difficult struggle, Our Lady
approached her and said, “My daughter, I left the glories of heaven and
descended to earth to protect my children. I desire that you also imitate
me in this and return to life, for your life is most necessary for the Order of
my Conceptionists.”
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| The Upper Choir loft of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Quito, where Mother Mariana would often pray, prostrate before the Tabernacle. |
Trembling yet consoled
by the promise of her Divine Mother that one faithful religious would always
remain in her convent, Sister Mariana chose the crown of lilies surrounded with
thorns and returned to the world to suffer, to the great rejoicing of the
sisters and Franciscan Friars who had not ceased their prayers and refused to
leave her bedside.
After returning to the
world, she dedicated herself with greater zeal to the practice of the monastic
life, carrying out the offices of bursar, choirmaster and novice
mistress. Because God had given her the discernment of souls, Sister
Mariana was able to guide the sisters under her care according to the spirit of
each one. When one of the novices would conceal a fault, she would call her
aside to remind her, for nothing could be hidden from her. Although she
was always a model of goodness and sweetness, she demanded strict observation
of even the smallest rules and insisted that her novices rise at 4 A.M. to
recite The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. She warned the sisters
that bitter times for the convent would come should the Little Office be put
aside, and that the demon would work relentlessly to prevent its recitation.
Second Resurrection of
Venerable Mariana
On September 17, 1588,
Sister Mariana was saying her customary prayers at midnight, when suddenly her
body shuddered so violently that she could not help but cry out.
Taken to bed, her body
was examined and it was discovered that on each palm of her hands was something
similar to a hole into which something had been driven. The same was present on
the soles of her feet in the very place where the spikes had been driven into
the feet of Our Lord. Upon her heart was a purple bruise and red mark, as if it
had been wounded by a spear.
The next morning, the
doctor examined her carefully and said she was completely debilitated: the
marrow of her bones dried up, her body paralyzed. The only movement he could
find was the beating of her heart.
This infirmity lasted
for one year and, in the first months, to the physical suffering were added the
spiritual ones, the “dark night of the soul.”
One day, on her bed of
pain, she suddenly heard a dreadful clamor in the cell. She opened her eyes and
saw a hideous serpent writhing and twisting in her cell, crawling frantically
on the walls, as if pursued by someone trying to drive him away.
Her pain increased and
her spirit was overwhelmed with despair. All the heroic acts of her life seemed
criminal to her. Her good works appeared as works of perdition, her very
vocation an illusion and sham by which she had delivered herself to eternal
damnation. In this woeful interior state, when it seemed to her that her soul
would detach itself from her body from the violence of her suffering and sink
like lead into Hell, she mustered all her strength, crying out: “Star of the
stormy sea, Mary Most Immaculate, the weak vessel of my soul is sinking. The
waters of tribulation are drowning me. Save me, for I am perishing!”
Before she had
pronounced the last word, she saw a celestial light around her and felt a
loving hand touching her head. At the same time, she heard a sweet voice that
said: “Why do you fear, My daughter? Do you know that I am with you in your
tribulation? Rise up and look at Me!”
The humble religious
raised herself up in her bed and saw a Lady of great majesty and grandeur who
breathed sweetness and love. She asked: “Who are you, beautiful Lady?”
Mariana still remained
in her bed suffering acute pains, and her health continued to worsen until
September 1589. The second Wednesday of the month, at 9 o’clock in the morning,
her agony began.
The Holy Mass was
celebrated in her presence and she received Extreme Unction. At noon on Good
Friday of that year, death appeared imminent. At 3:30 P.M., surrounded by
her praying and weeping sisters, Sister Mariana raised her eyes to heaven,
gazed at her crucifix, pressed it against her heart and, heaving a last sigh,
died.
At the order of the
Mother Abbess, her body was taken to the lower choir so that for three days it
might be viewed by the people of Quito, who crowded into the church to pray to
her as their protecting angel. The funeral Mass and burial was set for
Monday. However, on Easter Sunday morning when the grieving nuns entered
the upper choir to recite the 4 A.M. Little Office of Our Lady, they found
Sister Mariana praying as normal. The sisters screamed and ran in horror,
certain that they were seeing a ghost. Sister Mariana had resurrected a
second time! This time, she would continue her life of hard penance and
continual prayer for 47 more years until her final death in 1635.
Interrogated by her
confessor and the abbess, Sister Mariana explained that upon this, her second
death, Our Lord had placed her soul in another state of purification and she
had suffered a ‘mystical purgatory’ that lasted until 3 A.M. Sunday morning, the
same hour Christ had resurrected. He then placed her soul back in her
body, restoring it to full strength and vigor. Sister 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,
becoming one with Him in the holocaust for the future of the Church.
Thus was the soul of
this humble virgin prepared and purified to receive the apparition of the three
Archangels and the Sovereign Empress under the invocation of Our Lady of Good
Success, as well as for the great trials and mission reserved for her.
After the death of the
first Abbess in 1593, Sister Mariana de Jesus Torres was elected and installed
as Abbess at age 30. During that time, there were many troubles in both
the civil and ecclesiastical governments of the Spanish Colony of Quito.
During the process of colonization, as it happens even among the best, there
are sometimes adventurers who are crazed by the desire for gold and
power. These men created a pretext for revolt among the native people of
Quito against the Crown of Spain. The history of those early days of the
Colony also records the presence of Spaniards of great sanctity and heroism,
who dedicated themselves to the improvement of the Indians through education
and religious formation and sought to protect them from the abuses of the more
venal settlers and explorers.
This spirit of
insurrection and strife extended to the religious sphere. Along with the
many valorous and noble-minded missionaries, Spain was sending many of her
undisciplined friars to the Colony, where they strove to relax the monastic
rules. Thus the Church and the Country had a great need for heroic souls
who, by their practice of virtue and sacrifice, would stand between the Colony
and Divine Justice. Many times Our Lady of Good Success would tell Mother
Mariana that without these heroic souls, she could not have held back the hand
of justice of her Divine Son, and Quito would have ceased to exist. Such
is the role of hidden, penitential souls like Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres
and others—even in our days—who appease Divine Justice with their humble
sacrifice and conformity to Divine Will.
The spirit of revolt
entered the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception through a native sister,
known to posterity only as La Capitana (which in Spanish means the Captain or
the Leader). This non-observant sister fueled the fire of revolt
among many of the native sisters who had not received full orders and did the
domestic work in the Convent. Many of these tertiary sisters were jealous
of the Spanish mothers, especially of their holy Abbess Mother Mariana, and
were becoming weary of the strict observance to the rule she sweetly but
unrelentingly demanded.
La Capitana secretly
conspired with a priest, one of her relatives in the chancellery office, to
remove the Convent from the spiritual government of the Friars Minor and place
it under the direct authority of the Bishop. The Bishop of this time,
Msgr. Luis Lopez de Solis, was an Augustinian, zealous for the glory of
God. However, given his frequent absences from the chancellery, the
actual government of the Royal Convent fell to the Vicar General, who believed
the accusations La Capitana was making against her holy superior. The
plot to relax the rule and be free from the strict governance of the
Franciscans began to spread.
In face of this insubordination
and the plot to separate the Convent from the direction of the Friars Minor,
Mother Mariana would have recourse to her Spouse in the Blessed Sacrament to
find light, consolation and strength. On the morning of February 2, 1594,
she was praying prostate on the floor in the upper choir of the Convent, when
she felt the presence of someone who called her name. She rose and saw a
most beautiful Lady, who carried the Child Jesus in her left arm, and a golden
crosier adorned with precious stones in her right hand.
The Lady told her: “I am
Mary of Good Success, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. It is because you
are a religious soul who loves God and His Mother that I speak to you
now. I have come from heaven to console your afflicted heart. Your prayers,
tears and penances are most pleasing to our celestial Father. The Holy Ghost
Who consoles your spirit and sustains you in your tribulations formed, from
three drops of the Blood of my Heart the most beautiful Child of mankind. For
nine months, I, Virgin and Mother, carried Him in my most pure womb. In the
stable in Bethlehem, I gave birth to Him and lay Him to rest on the cold straw.
As His Mother, I carry Him here, in my left arm, so that together we might
restrain the hand of Divine Justice, which is always so ready to chastise this
unfortunate and criminal world. In my right arm, I carry the crosier that you
see, for I desire to govern this Convent as Abbess and Mother. Soon the
Franciscan friars will no longer govern this Convent, which is why my patronage
and protection are more necessary than ever, for this difficult trial will last
for centuries.”
“With this,” she said,
“Satan will begin to try to destroy this world of God, making use of my
ungrateful daughters, but he will not succeed, because I am the Queen of
Victories and the Mother of Good Success, and under this invocation I desire to
be known throughout time for the preservation of my Convent and its
inhabitants.” She then assured Mother Mariana that until the end of the
world, she would have holy, heroic sisters hidden in her Convent who would
suffer persecutions and calumnies within the very bosom of the community.
Our Lady warned Mother Mariana of the many sufferings in store for
her. To strengthen her spirit, she placed the Divine Child in the arms of
the happy religious, who embraced Him next to her heart and felt within herself
the strong desire to suffer.
Shortly after this
vision, the community, influenced by the non-observant sisters who wanted a
relaxation of the rigor of monastic life, elected Mother Magdalena de Jesus
Valenzuela as Abbess. Soon afterward, just as Our Lady had predicted to
Mother Mariana, the Convent was released from its obedience to the Franciscans
and became subject to the Ordinary. The observance of the rule was
relaxed and strict silence disappeared, to the great sorrow of Mother Mariana,
who tried to convince the new Abbess to curb these excesses. In
retaliation, La Capitana and the non-observant sisters spread lies and
complaints about the disobedience of Mother Mariana and managed to get orders
from the Vicar General for the imprisonment of Mother Mariana, who was deprived
of her veil and sent to the Convent prison.
The other Spanish mothers,
inconsolable and unable to contain their grief at this injustice, soon were
ordered to accompany Mother Mariana in her sentence. The Spanish Founding
Mothers were joined by observant native religious who had been educated and
formed by Mother Mariana and did not want to be deprived of her virtuous
company. Gradually, the number of imprisoned observant sisters increased
to 25. Thus united, their prayer, songs and spirit of recollection
transformed the prison into an antechamber of heaven, where the strict
observance of the rule shone resplendently within its dark walls.
One night during the
first imprisonment in this blessed place of suffering (for Mother Mariana and
the Founding Mothers would be imprisoned four times during this difficult
period of internal strife in the Royal Convent), all the Founding Mothers
received special visions corresponding to their particular vocations.
Mother Mariana saw Our
Lord crucified, agonizing at Golgotha amid blasphemies and insults.
Mother Francisca of the Angels saw her seraphic father, St. Francis.
Angry at the Convent, he carried a bow and walked through its halls, shooting
arrow left and right. One arrow pierced the heart of a sister, who in
fact died at that moment without anyone knowing the natural cause. St.
Francis told Mother Francisca: “This sister was one of the main causes
for the separation of the Friars Minor and the relaxation in the Convent.”
Mother Anne of the
Conception saw the Virgin Mary extinguishing the vigil lamp of the Tabernacle
in the Convent. She explained that the observant spirit of some of her
daughters would be extinguished, but that it would soon be lit again, and that
this light would burn throughout the centuries because one reason this Convent
of the Immaculate Conception had been founded was to appease Divine Justice for
the sins committed in that city. When the non-observant sisters went to
Mass the next day, they saw that the sanctuary lamp was extinguished and could
not be lit no matter how much they tried, until the next day when it
mysteriously re-lit itself.
Mother Lucia of the
Cross was given to see and admire the mystery of love of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. She saw the Precious Blood pouring forth from His Heart and heard
the voice of Christ say: “In this ocean of Blood, My Heart wants to wash
all those who are guilty and who come to Me with a contrite heart.”
Mother Magdalena of St.
John saw the beloved Apostle, St. John the Evangelist, who told her that among
the sublime secrets revealed to him when he reclined his head on the Heart of
his Master, were all the sacrileges that would be committed in the world
against the Holy Eucharist. He predicted to her the horrible crime that
would take place in the city of Riobamba (central Ecuador). This prophecy
was fulfilled after more than two centuries when soldiers entered St. Philip’s
Church and impiously murdered the Jesuit priest Father Moscoso. They
opened the Tabernacle, emptied the Hosts on the ground and trampled them
underfoot. Mother Magdalena saw the soul of Father Moscoso, a martyr of
the Holy Eucharist, fly to heaven even before the soldiers finished their
profanation of the Sacred Species.
[Comment: In 1900 Mother
Frances of the Sacred Wounds founded the Congregation of the Franciscans of
Mary Immaculate as national reparation for this terrible sacrilege. Msgr.
Luis E. Cadena y Almeida, “A Spanish Mystic in Quito: Sor Mariana de
Jesus Torres” (New York: The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, 1990), p.
49.]
Apparition of January 16, 1599
Lessons and Prophecies
On January 16, 1599,
during the third imprisonment of Mother Mariana in the Convent prison, Our Lady
appeared to her a second time. She told Mother Mariana, “I am Mary of
Good Success, an invocation well-known in Spain and one to whom you have often
resorted. (…). The tribulation that my Most Holy Son has given you is a
celestial gift to embellish your soul and to hold back the divine ire, so ready
to unleash a terrible chastisement upon this ungrateful Colony. How many hidden
crimes are committed by its population and in the surrounding area! For
precisely this reason, this Convent was founded here so that the God of Heaven
and Earth would be avenged in the very place in which He is offended and
unrecognized. (…)”
“Remember the words of
the Royal Prophet: ‘How marvelous are the works of the Lord!’ Be
convinced of this truth; teach and impress upon your daughters—both those
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 our heirs,
those who belong to us in a special way.”
Prophecies about the
Future of the Colony and Convent
Our Lady continued with
these prophetic words: “In a short time, the country in which you live
will cease to be a Colony and will become a free Republic. Then, known by
the name of Ecuador, it will need heroic souls to sustain it in face of so many
public and private calamities. Here, in this Convent, God will always
find those souls, like hidden violets. Accursed would be Quito without
this Convent! The most powerful king on earth with all his
riches could not erect new buildings on this site, for this place belongs to
God.”
[Comment: In fact,
Ecuador was declared a Republic on August 19, 1809. The following years
witnessed a terrible massacre of the nobility, even women and children being
put to the sword. Independence was definitively secured May 22, 1820, after the
battle of Pichincha. Since that time, Ecuador has been torn by internal
dissentions.]
 |
| President Gabriel Garcia Moreno |
“In the 19th
century there will be a truly Catholic president, a man of character whom God
Our Lord will give the palm of martyrdom on the square adjoining this
Convent. He will consecrate the Republic to the Sacred Heart of my Most
Holy Son, and this consecration will sustain the Catholic Religion in the years
that will follow, which will be ill-fated ones for the Church. These
years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil
government - will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities, and it
will also strike out violently against this one of mine. These unfortunate men
will think the Convent destroyed, but God lives and I live, and we will raise
up powerful defenders and set before these enemies difficulties impossible to
conquer, and the triumph will be ours. (...).”
[Comment: The Catholic
Gabriel Garcia Moreno had been President of Ecuador in the periods 1861-1865
and 1869-1875. He transformed his Country, freeing it from continuous
revolutions and from its public debt, and reorganizing civil and religious
affairs favoring the Catholic Church. In 1873, Garcia Moreno made a public
consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This act infuriated the
Freemasons, and the German Grand Lodge gave an order for his death. As Our Lady
forwarned, on August 6, 1875, on his way out of the Cathedral, he was struck
down and killed by assassins, in the square of Quito adjoining the Convent.
Pope Pius IX paid his tribute as a man who had died “the death of a martyr… a
victim for his Faith and Christian charity.”]
An Order for a Statue to Be Made
For this reason, Our
Lady continues, “Thus it is the wish of my Most Holy Son that you command a
statue of me to be made, just as you see me now, and that you place it upon the
Abbess’ chair so that I may govern my Convent. In my right hand, place the
crosier and the keys to the cloister as a sign of my proprietorship and
authority. In my left arm, place my Divine Child: first, so that the men
understand how powerful I am in placating the 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,
so that throughout time my daughters will understand that I am showing and
giving them my most Holy Son and their God as a model of religious perfection.
They should come to me, for I will lead them to Him.”
Then Our Lady said,
“Here, my daughter, you have the measurement of the height of your Heavenly
Mother. Tell this to my servant, Francisco del Castillo, and describe to him my
features and bearing. He will do the exterior work on my statue... .”
Before she left, the
Blessed Virgin told Mother Mariana that the holy captivity would end very soon.
Heartened by this vision, Mother Mariana wakened her daughters to pray the
Little Office. That day at the hour of None, 3 P.M., Mother Mariana and
the other Founding Mothers saw an immense dragon, whose large eyes spit fire at
the observant sisters. The monster prowled everywhere but could not enter
either the choir or the prison. Then they saw their seraphic father St.
Francis with a bow, shooting flaming arrows at the dragon. Wounded and
anguished, the dragon caused the earth to open and then withdrew into this
abyss. At this very moment, a long tremor of the earth occurred, which
caused fear among the non-observant sisters and the inhabitants of the
city. Shortly afterwards, Mother Valenzuela, who was acting as Abbess
during Mother Mariana’s imprisonment, decided that things had gone too
far. Pressured by the rebellious sisters, she had ordered Mother
Mariana’s imprisonment, but afterward she had repented her action when she had
realized the depth of their malice toward the angelic Founding Mothers.
Mother Valenzuela, a native religious from a good family in Quito, was not a
bad intentioned religious, but very weak in character and thus able to be
influence by the rebellious sisters. Now, however, she took courage,
exerted her influence and obtained an order for the release of the holy and
innocent prisoners and the reinstatement of Mother Mariana as Abbess.
Mother Mariana Begs Our Lord to Save Her
Sister
La Capitana, however,
could not submit to this humiliation. Instead of recognizing her errors
and asking for pardon, she became hardened in her pride, bitterness and anger,
which were directed with particular vehemence against Mother Mariana. The
health of the rebellious sister declined as she refused all food, and in fits
of madness, she screamed, blasphemed, cursed and hit her head against the walls.
Through Mother Mariana’s intervention, the Bishop gave permission for La
Capitana to be moved from the prison to the infirmary. However, none of
the sisters dared approach the rebellious sister. Mother Mariana assumed
the office of nurse, showing to the violent sister every tenderness and
kindness, which was returned by insults, slaps and spittle.
Seeing the soul of her
sister so near to perdition, Mother Mariana begged Our Lord for the salvation
of these soul as she prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. She had been
given to understand how the devil possessed this sinful soul and communicated
to her the spirit of revolt, blasphemy, hate and despair. She realized
that this obdurate sister would soon die and would be cast into the depths of
hell.
As she begged that the
impenitent sister be saved, Our Lord appeared to Mother Mariana as He was in
the Garden of Olives at the moment of His greatest suffering. She saw
that the most intense interior torments of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were the
ingratitude and indifference of those souls who, chosen among millions to be
His spouses and ministers, left Him in grievous 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.
At Mother Mariana’s
supplication to made amends for her guilty sister, Our Lord agreed that La
Capitana would be saved, although she would be required to remain in purgatory
until the end of the world. In recompense, Mother Mariana would suffer on
earth for five years the pains of hell that were reserved for La
Capitana. Mother Mariana knew well through Tradition, Scripture and the
teachings of the Church of the terrible torments of the damned. For
eternity they suffer both the pain of the senses and the far worse pain of the
loss of the beatific vision.
At the end of La
Capitana’s long illness, the unhappy sister was given to understand her
miserable condition, became contrite and made a general confession. She became
a model of humility and piety.
Five Years Suffering the Torments of Hell
Shortly after La
Capitana’s heart had been touched by God’s merciful grace, Mother Mariana began
to fulfill the sentence that she had undertaken for the conversion of this
rebellious sister. For five years, she suffered the stench of hell that
tortured her sense of smell. Her sight was constantly tormented with the
presence of the devil; the blasphemies of the damned were always present to her
ears; her touch was chastised with acute pains; her sense of taste was
embittered by every morsel of food that she was swallowed. But the
greatest suffering was the pain of loss. Without ceasing the love Our Lord with
all the intensity of which she was capable, she nonetheless felt the unbearable
absence of Him and felt that she was forever severed for Him. Throughout
this long five years that seemed an eternity, she never lost her lovely calm
and expression of peace and serenity, and she continued to meticulously follow
the rule and her rigorous life of prayer and sacrifice.
At the end of the five
years, Mother Mariana called together the remaining Founding Mothers, who in
spirit had accompanied her suffering with their prayers, sacrifices and
penances. She told them: “Alas, my sisters! How terrible hell
is! No words can describe it!”
Part 2»
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