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400 Years Ago, Our Lady Sent Us A Message From Ecuador

Miraculous Statue of Our Lady of Good Success
Statue of Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador

I spent a lovely weekend with my family, and have mostly avoided the news. This morning I awoke to a story about Pope Francis making a surprise public appearance in Quito, Ecuador, where he is beginning a tour of three Latin American countries. He is scheduled to celebrate Mass for an enormous crowd — estimates say well over a million people — some time today.

But the focus on Ecuador in the context of the events of the past few months brings to mind another story, one we’ve referenced several times in our articles here at 1P5. It is the story of Our Lady of Good Success, and her (approved) apparitions to Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres in Quito, Ecuador in the 17th century. As a testament to her sanctity, the body of Ven. Mariana is, to this day, considered incorrupt, and upon the opening of her casket in 1906, was found to exude the fragrance of lilies.

These apparitions were especially prescient in their warnings and predictions, and they offered us a timeline of events that was quite specific — mentioning the 20th century in particular — that indeed matches with our own experience. Here is a portion of the message of Our Lady to Mother Mariana on January 21st, 1610:

“Thus, I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century, in what is today the Colony and will then be the Republic of Ecuador, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic Sects. They will focus principally on the children in order to sustain this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times!

It will be difficult to receive the Sacrament of Baptism and also the Sacrament of Confirmation. They will receive the Sacrament of Confession only if they remain in Catholic schools, for the Devil will make a great effort to destroy it through persons in position of authority. The same thing will happen with the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Alas! How deeply I grieve to manifest to you the many enormous sacrileges – both public as well as secret – that will occur from profanation of the Holy Eucharist. Often, during this epoch the enemies of Jesus Christ, instigated by the Devil, will steal consecrated Hosts from the churches so that they might profane the Eucharistic Species. My Most Holy Son will see Himself cast upon the ground and trampled upon by filthy feet. (…).

But in those times you will already be known, as well as the favors that I am bestowing on you. How I love the fortunate inhabitants of this sacred place! And that knowledge will stimulate love and devotion to my Sacred Statue. For this reason, today, I authoritatively order you to have this Statue made: let it be sculptured just as you see Me and placed upon the Abbess’s chair, so that from there I may govern and direct my daughters and defend my Convent; for Satan, making use of both the good and the evil, will engage in a fierce battle to destroy it.

(…).

Since this poor Country will lack the Catholic spirit, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction will be little valued. Many people will die without receiving it – either because of the negligence of their families or misconceived affection for their sick ones. Others, incited by the cursed Devil, will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church and will deprive countless souls of innumerable graces, consolations, and the strength they need to make the great leap from time to eternity. But some persons will die without receiving it due to just and secret chastisements of God.

As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolises the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and deeply profaned. Freemasonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the aim of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin and encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church. The Catholic spirit will rapidly decay; the precious light of Faith will gradually be extinguished until there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. Added to this will be the effects of secular education, which will be one reason for the death of priestly and religious vocations.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed, and despised, for in this Sacrament, the Church of God and even God Himself is scorned and despised since He is represented in His priests. The Devil will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way; he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation and will corrupt many of them. These depraved priests, who will scandalise the Christian people, will make the hatred of bad Catholics and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all priests.

This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous suffering to the good Pastors of the Church, the many good priests, and 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 his God and Lord, beseeching light, sanctity and perfection for all the clergy of the world, of whom he is King and Father. Further, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which will ensnare the rest into sin and conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women.

In this supreme moment of need of the Church, the one who should speak will fall silent!”

You will see this from Heaven, my beloved daughter, where you can no long suffer, but your daughters and successors will suffer, those beloved souls already known to you who will placate the Divine Ire. They will have recourse to Me under the invocation of Our Lady of Good Success, whose Statue I ask and command that you have made for the consolation and preservation of my Convent and of the faithful souls of that time, an epoch when there will be a great devotion to Me, for I am Queen of Heaven under many invocations.

This devotion will be the shield between Divine Justice and the prevaricating world to prevent the release of God’s formidable punishment that this guilty earth deserves.

In the next apparition, in February of the same year, Our Lady responds to Ven. Mother Mariana’s request to have her identity hidden in connection to the creation of the statue Our Lady requested in her honor. She re-iterates several points from the first message:

As for your request that your name be hidden, this pleases me, and I will do as you have asked. Tell the Bishop that it is my will and the will of my Most Holy Son that your name be hidden at all costs, both within as well as outside the cloister, for it is not fitting for anyone at the present time to know the details or origin of how this Statue came to be made. For this knowledge will only become known to the general public in the 20th century.

During that epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible hordes of the Masonic sect, and this poor Ecuadorian land will be agonizing because of the corruption of customs, unbridled luxury, the impious press, and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy, and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and that one who should speak out will be silent.

[..]

A simple, humble faith in the truth of my apparitions to you, my favoured child, will be reserved for humble and fervent who are docile to the inspirations of grace, for our Heavenly Father communicates His secrets to the simple of heart, and not to those whose hearts are inflated with pride, pretending to know what they do not or infatuated with empty science.

There’s a great deal to unpack here, but even the most cursory reading offers obvious parallels to what we are experiencing now. Whether and when each piece of this prophecy applies (or will apply) is something I’m not qualified to answer. Mary went on to explain, in the 6th apparition, in February, 1634:

In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of My Most Holy Son will destine for that restoration will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions in which everything will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration.

[…]

During this unfortunate epoch, injustice will even enter here, my closed garden. Disguised under the name of false charity, it will wreak havoc in souls. The spiteful demon will try to sow discord, making use of putrid members, who, masked by the appearance of virtue, will be like decaying sepulchers emanating the pestilence of putrefaction, causing moral deaths in some and lukewarmness in others.

[…]

[T]he spirit of impurity that will saturate the atmosphere in those times. Like a filthy ocean, it will inundate the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world.

[…]

How the Church will suffer on that occasion the dark night of the lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, and prudence. Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. Pray insistently without tiring and weep with bitter tears in the secrecy of your heart, imploring our Celestial Father that, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity and by the profound bitterness and sufferings of His cruel Passion and Death, He might take pity on His Ministers and quickly bring to an end those ominous times, sending to this Church the Prelate that will restore the spirit of its Priests.

There simply isn’t room here to cite all the relevant passages, so I suggest that those of you who are interested take the time to read more. I have found it somewhat challenging to find more than brief excerpts from the messages to Ven. Mother Mariana, which is why all of the above citations are taken from this issue of Chiesa Viva. I am not familiar with the publication (its native language is Italian) but I have some concerns, based on what I see on the website, about its general editorial bias. If anyone has a better source — preferably a book — on Our Lady of Good Success, please let me know in the comments.

42 thoughts on “400 Years Ago, Our Lady Sent Us A Message From Ecuador”

  1. I wonder about these, I know many Catholics believe in this apparition and the message, but; 1. This was nearly 100 years before the first Lodge in England in 1717 and nearly 175 before Illuminism and the French Revolution which it spawned. The printing press had certainly been invented but was their a “Press” as in newspapers? Would Our Lady have referred to “Masonic Sects” and a “Press” that did not exist or at least in terms that the visionary would not have understood?

    Reply
    • I have a photocopy of the history of Our Lady of Good Success written by a Portuguese priest Fr. Peirrera in late 1600s (he received an apparition which told him to be involved), in Portuguese, sent by a Mariologist professor from a university in northern Spain.
      It is written in Portuguese, but it does NOT say Masonic Sect, it says evil sects or something like that. I also looked for that.

      Reply
      • According to Marian Horvat (who seems to be the only English language expert on the apparitions) Fr. Peirrera wrote the book in 1790. Mother Mariana reportedly appeared to Fr. Peirrera 150 years after her death.

        So his book was based on a private revelation of a private revelation. Many people have tried to dig into this apparition, and the lack of original source material is troubling. Last time I dug around, the earliest source material is a 19th century book.

        In any event, Fatima already gives us everything we need to read the signs of the times.

        Reply
        • Thanks for the correction, it is 1790, I just quickly wrote off the top of my head.

          The university photocopy I received, has a photocopy of the cover page of the 1790 book, which is old style from that time and looks quite authentic. The rest of the pages are type-written in Portuguese.

          I also have the book on Nuestra Señora de Buen Suceso written by the Postulator priest for canonization of the Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres in Ecuador (he died some time ago), which put together the original material and should have all of this. The holy nun Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres is up for canonization in Rome and still is considered as Venerable, I called the office for canonizations back in 2006 or so, and the person who answered the phone knew about Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres and told me that the process is still ongoing.

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        • Oh, Fr. Peirrera did not write the contents of his 1790 book on his apparition he received. He received an apparition in Portuguese Brazil when he was a Lieutenant in the Portuguese colonial army, that told him to join an army that never loses, to be a priest, and that led him to be a priest, and later go to Ecuador. His book was written on factual information he compiled, including documents that were later lost.

          Reply
          • Thanks for the explanation.

            The Vatican should appoint some lowly priest who is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese to sort everything out and issue a report.

          • I agree, I would like to see someone neutral, intelligent, prudent and a good researcher get to the bottom of this. I have yet to see credible evidence that the alleged private revelation text really originates from Mother Mariana. I have yet to see anything about it from any Catholic Church source that would have a competency about this, such as from the local diocese. There is no doubt that there is approved devotion to an IMAGE of Our Lady of Good Success associated with Mother Mariana. If the veracity of it is really ultimately uninvestigable, we can always trust the teaching of St John of the Cross, “the mystical Doctor”, that the best course of action with private revelations and the one that God desires of us, is to have no attachment nor pay much attention to them, since in Jesus Christ God has said everything He has to say, and has nothing more to add.

          • There is a Postulator (priest) in the Diocese of Quito Ecuador for the canonization of the (already Venerable) Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres. The process of canonization is *still* ongoing in the Vatican, at the Congregation of Saints. I called them up in 2006, I speak some Italian, the the person there answered that the canonization is still ongoing (since the 1930s I believe).
            The original Postulator who died in the 1990s (?) wrote several books, he seemed to be a holy and humble priest, I have one of them written in Spanish. Its all stacked away in my basement now, I would look them up and give you the exact names.
            The Our Lady of Good Success devotion is not some old statue devotion gotten out of hand with fantastic stories. There has been continous devotion, testimonial, documents, and information from the Convent in Quito and the Diocese since the 1600s.
            The Statue of the 1600s is still there.
            This is similar to the Virgen de Guadalupe, there is actually little historical documents from that time in the 1500s, but the miraculous mantle is still there.

    • Yes, Mary could know things from the future. If her Divine Son chose to reveal elements from the future, which He can as God is not bound within time but exists before, after and beyond any reference to time. Time- space is after all a creation of The Uncsused Cause, God.

      Reply
    • I had the same question, it is addressed at tradition in action. I don’t merely believe the apparition & prophecy, rather I am moved in reverence before our Lord, in gratitude for the recognition in the world of what Our Lady of Good Success foretold because it conveys the absolute necessity of faith, obedience and His Grace

      Reply
  2. There is nothing wrong with TIA, their information is truthful and not deceptive.
    I have the Our Lady of Good Success documents in Spanish both from a university in Spain and from a publisher in Ecuador, and TIA is completely spot on.
    You might not like their firm tone for a restoration of Christendom, however, you just quoted above from Our Lady of Good Success on the upcoming restoration.
    I suggest that is where the TIA tone come from, and also I might add, I too have become more firm in my rejection of recent societal evil events, knowing that this was all prophesied along and things will not end up well.

    By the way, you may be interested in in knowing that part of the history of Our Lady of Good Success, there is a statue that was hidden in a Convent wall, that will be found only once the Restoration has taken place. It has not been found yet, but I think that you would already know that things are not ok and Christianity is fully Restored.

    I suggest you also look into the appartions of the Virgen de Umbe in northern Spain in the 1970s with over 400 medically-documented biblical-style miracles given the the local Bishop. The Virgin Mary also gave some severe warnings in quite the same language (it feels its the same person for sure!) as in the writings from Ecuador.

    Reply
    • Virgin de Umbe could be Our Lady of Garabandal, which I visited on my birthday (Annunciation) in 1995. I had my birthday song sung in 5 different languages that night–imagine the laughter after that!

      Reply
  3. It was that website that informed me more about our Lady of Fatima. And reading that I reached to the apparitions in Medjugorje, which confirmed why I never gave so much importance to that one. I’m bolivian and live here in La Paz, so I’m a bit distressed to see how people is so busy and excited to go welcome the pope. I wonder if they were so feverish with their prayer and the Sacraments… well we would be in better shape. Reality is harsh, there is a dual attitude in most “catholics”, as they go to Mass, but then have the “blessing” of a yatiri (like a shaman)… say some prayers, but then involve in big parties where alcohol runs with no limit. Most of these deviations, are approved and blessed by our priests and even the bishop. This is why there is a BIG need of penitence and prayer. Hope that Wednesday/Thursday there won’t be any silly procedure with the coca leaf, or any claim about “mother earth” (here they pay tribute to pacha-mama/mother earth), for that will only feed the confusion.

    Reply
  4. On the matter of this particular revelation, what has made me give it the benefit of the doubt is the following. Let us say that Fr. Peirrera did have any original sources to draw from. Yet, his assessment of the 20th century seems very accurate. Since the apparition is locally approved (from what I understand?), and the Church has not spoken against it, the somewhat accurate assessment of the 20th century seems to make the apparition reasonable to believe as true.

    Either way people, we know a restoration is coming through the intercession of Our Lady. There are the prophecies of St. John Bosco

    http://www.franciscan-archive.org/bosco/opera/boscofr.html

    and that of Our Lady of Fatima to confirm that.

    Reply
      • Thank you Maggie. But can you point out to a source in regards to that? I cannot find anything that speaks about St. John Paul II approving the messages of Our Lady of Good Success.

        Also, please note that I currently stand in favor of the apparition being authentic as well. I just feel that as far as the contents of the message go, we have had apparitions and prophecies that have been approved (Fatima, Lourdes etc.) or accepted (like those of St. John Bosco) more publicly by the Church that pretty much confirm the same contents.

        In regards to the which specific iniquities are plaguing society today, I think we are past the point of needing a private revelation. The immorality is publicly manifested and promoted so violently that it would be pretty hard for even a cloistered person to be completely unaware of it.

        Reply
        • I have a particular video called “Our Lady of Good Success, History, Miracles & Prophecies” from ProMultis Media. our lady of Good Success has been approved by the Church since 1611! When the caskets were opened in 1906, Mother Mariana plus 6 other founding mothers were all incorrupt. They apparently still are. In 1986 the Bishop began a process for Mother Mariana’s canonization. He made an ‘episcopal decree’ attesting to both the sanctity of her life and her heroic practice of virtues. What is also important is the proof of authenticity of her charismas and her supernatural gifts which the bishop approved as well.There was a Canonical Coronation of Our Lady of Good Success as Queen of Quito in 1991. The bishop, cardinal, and all the clergy did the Coronation of the Virgin under St. John Paul II. Regarding a Canonical Crowning, it is a Papal Order that is accompanied by a Papal Bull and it is attested to the fact that this devotion has been long continuing, there is an historical record, and has brought many to devotion to her. It has been over 400 years of unbroken, continuous devotion of the people and so it was declared a Marian Sanctuary. To get that title, there has to be historical proof of a long unbroken continuous devotion, and also there has to be Church approval. If you can, get the video. It is quite wonderful and very interesting. On another note, all the prophecies have been fulfilled except one, which the Triumph. It was noted that Mother Mariana will be canonized, but it will only happen when the church is restored which I thought was rather interesting.

          Reply
          • Thank you Maggie. That is very interesting indeed. I only learned about the canonical crowning when you mentioned it above. I will definitely try to get a hold of the video.

            Thanks again!

          • Approving an image is quite different from approving a private revelation and I don’t think any document exists that would tell us St. John Paul II approved the messages themselves.

  5. Here’s a talk on the apparition of Our Lady of Good Success by Fr. Isaac Relyea. Fr. Relyea even started his own religious order, the Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Good Success. A traditional capuchin Franciscan order with the exclusive use of the TLM and traditional Catholic doctrine:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjUtzh4UpRc

    Reply
    • He did not successfully attract any vocations to join his proposed religious order, and his probation in the Madison Diocese ended without him being granted to stay there permanently (possibly because of the lack of vocations to the order), therefore he has moved to Alabama, about which almost nothing is known.

      Reply
      • I was wondering why he left Madison. If he had a falling out with the bishop. I am not surprised about the vocations. It is a hard, rigorous, penitential, traditional religious life. Candidates would find it too penitential. Lots of mental prayer with a strict life of a poor traditionalist Franciscan religious friar.

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  6. “In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of My Most Holy Son will destine for that restoration will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions in which everything will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”

    Fantastic. I’d almost hazard to say: this very paragraph should be recited at Catholic gatherings.

    Reply
  7. This is boulderdash. Our lady would never use the term illegitimate. God thinks all children are beautiful. If they were ever born without the blessings of the church it surely is not God’s will . Take this down! It hurts every human being who was born with a mother who refused to marry the father because he was unfit–which God prefers. He doesn’t want unfit father’s around. But he absolutely DOES want fathers to support their children and the church is doing nothing about that. And if this was truly the Blessed mother she would have talked about that as well as the genocide that ihas occurred as a result of this barbarian sexist attitude .

    Look up the roots of the word “illegitimate” and you will find that it comes out of the middle ages to protect philandering husbands from having to spend their money. We have not overcome the huge ugly history that caused abortion and we won’t get rid if abortion until we do! Take this down! It causes abortion!

    Take Steve jobs: he didn’t marry the mother of his first child. I’m sure the only thing God cares about Apple is if she was well cared for as a result and had a mother who didn’t have to work-since she had no father around daily.

    Reply
    • did you know that Steve Jobs himself was scheduled for an abortion by his mother, but she kept him anyway? Maybe he was mirroring his own father in absentia.

      Maybe not ALL fathers are unfit, but certain mothers don’t want a child (affecting their lifestyle, medical issues etc.)–did you even think of that? God cherishes and “prefers” everyone–even unfit fathers and mothers–under His mantle of love and protection if indeed they repent.

      Reply
  8. Seven years late, but if you’d still like a source, please talk to the Marian Fathers at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy.

    Reply
  9. I have been sponsoring a men’s group in our parish and just completed 2 sessions on Church Approved Marian Apparitions and never found this one. I finally heard about it on Our Catholic radio Station of the Cross and searched it out. Wow, this is spot on for our times now. I continually ask our parish priest, “Why are the Bishops and Cardinals not speaking out against all this sin. Why are they allowing the blatant sinners to receive Holy Communion?” and now the Pope comes out to bless the couples in unholy relations. I’m going to redouble my prayers and ask Our Lady of Good Success to guard over my family, children and grandchildren. Thank you for this message

    Reply

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