Saint Mariana de Jesús Paredes y Flores, the Lily of Quito (+1648)
St. Mariana is the first native Ecuadorian canonized saint. She is not to be confused with Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, a Conceptionist nun, who is well known for the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success to her. However, she is yet to be canonized (though I believe she surely will one day). These two tocayas lived in the same city at the same time, knew each other, and have a great respect and love for one another. A common way to differentiate them is to speak of “Saint Mariana” and “Mother Mariana.”
Saint Mariana was born on 31 Oct 1618 to a noble couple of Quito, descended from Spanish aristocracy. From the time of her birth, miraculous events were witnessed. For example, those attending her mother at the time of her delivery were astonished to see unusual and unique amazing phenomena among the stars in the heavens. Years later when the local bishop began an inquiry for the cause of her canonization, several witnessed testified to a celestial miracle (reminiscent of the Star over Bethlehem). From her earliest childhood, Mariana exhibited a great love of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, an extraordinary attraction to prayer and physical mortification, and the desire to bring the Faith to those who were spiritually impoverished and ignorant of our Lord and Savior. For example, she refused to nurse more than twice a day. She was quite frail and despite all her mother’s efforts, including the support of wet nurses, the saintly infant refused to accept more food. It seems the devil knew something of her destiny and tried to kill her in her youth (like Herod), for she survived several mortal accidents. She was miraculously saved from drowning, from a deadly fall off a second story building onto a pile of stone and rock, and even escaping being crushed by a stones wall collapsing upon a spot where seconds before she had been paying with her friends. She emerged unscathed in all these attacks. However, her parents passed away when she was still young. Thus she was cared for by extended family and older siblings.
At the age of ten, she promised to live the evangelical councils of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It was her one desire to become a religious in one of the many convents of Quito, or to travel abroad and be a missionary. God however chose otherwise and prevented these dreams from being realized. She was unable to enter the Convent of St. Catherine because the proper papers were not signed. She did not enter the Convent of St. Clare because God let her know this was not for her. In all humility and joy, Mariana accepted this as the Divine Will and persevered in obedience. Instead she became a hermit within her own home (which was that of her sister and bother-in-law). This was resisted by her brother-in-law who tired of her vocational indecision, but her confessor interceded for her. Nevertheless she suffered much on account of the scandalous gossip leveled against her for “trying to live as a religious at home.”
Her confessor provided a regimented schedule for her of work and prayer. All the money she earned from her crafts was given to the poor. Though not well educated, she managed to found the first Catholic Action, the first free clinic in Quito and a small school for the Indian and Negro children. She fed, clothed and bathed them. Many poor came to her for assistance and she cared for their ills with medicine. If she was not praying or studying, she was busying herself with corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
She began to practice incredible austerities. For example, she often fasted from all food and on the days that she would eat, she ate sparsely (just a few morsels of dry bread every eight or ten days). Indeed, her body seemed to be miraculously sustained on Holy Communion, which she was given the privilege of receiving daily (in those days, special permission from a spiritual director was needed to communicate daily). One of her many penances was to drag about a heavy wooden cross in imitation of her beloved Savior on the way to His crucifixion. On certain days of the week, she would lash herself to beams that were affixed to the wall of her room and hang there for three hours, all to bring herself closer to the crucified Savior.
Mariana was endowed with wonderful mystical gifts: she could read hearts, she could affect cures, predict the future, and on at least one occasion, she restored a dead person to life. She seemed to be able to see distant events, past and future, as if they were passing before her.
Upon learning of the death of Mother Mariana, the Lily of Quito wished to venerate the remains of the sister that understood the concept of true sanctity. Rightfully, they were kindred spirits at heart. Upon reaching the Conceptionist Church, Saint Mariana found it already packed with faithful souls paying their last respects to Mother Mariana. Despite being only seventeen years of age, The Lily of Quito was already known far and wide amongst the people of Quito for her sanctity. At the sight of this holy young woman and out of respect for her reputation of sanctity, a passageway was created so that she could easily make her way through the throng to be as close as possible to the coffin. From this choice spot, she participated in the funeral ceremony. She was able to gaze upon the face of the deceased as she listened to the inspired words of the Bishop of Quito, Mons. Fr. Pedro of Oviedo. At the end of this inspirational sermon, The Lily of Quito could not contain in her heart that which had just been revealed to her about Mother Mariana’s exemplary and virtuous life by way of Divine Inspiration. With deepest sincerity and reverence, she exclaimed, "A saint has died!" Thus her appearance at the funeral of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres made a testimony to this good sister’s sanctity. Dr. Luis E. Cadena y Almelda, Postulator for the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Mother Mariana, has expressed his thoughts about this eventful happening in this quotation: "In this way, a saint has canonized another saint."
Mother Mariana had wished to remain hidden in her day because she did not want the people to pay undue attention to her that would detract from Our Lady of Good Success. The Lily of Quito shared a similar humility. In fact, perhaps all of St. Mariana’s spiritual gifts would have remained a secret but for her ultimate sacrifice. In the year 1646, the city of Quito, capital of Ecuador, was being ravaged by many scourges on account of the sins of its Catholic population. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and terrible diseases were decimating the population. More than fourteen thousand people had been killed and many buildings were destroyed in the quakes. When the volcano Pinchincha erupted after being dormant for more than eighty years, the people began to accept the truth that their sins were the cause.
Father Alonso de Rojas, pastor of the Jesuit church, offered himself publicly, as he preached from the pulpit, to be a propitiatory victim and asking God that he might die to save the people from the punishment they deserved. After his sermon, Mariana, who had been sitting right in the front pews, calmly rose from her seat and announced in a loud clear voice that she would take the place of Father Rojas because he was a good priest and much more needed in Quito than she was. She then asked Our Lord to accept her offering “in defense of her country, her compatriots, and her kindred” and that she “might be chastised for everything in the city which deserved chastisement.” Upon arriving at her home, she was immediately struck with an extremely painful and mortal illness, to which she succumbed within two months. During her final suffering the earthquakes stopped, the volcano quieted, and the plagues died out.
All of Quito prayed for Mariana’s recovery, realizing what a great sacrifice she had made for them. God accepted their prayers as repentance, but God still required Mariana’s atoning reparation. Her soul was taken to paradise to be with her Beloved forever on Ascension Thursday, 26 May 1645. She was just 26 years old. When she breathed her last, her body fell over on the dirt floor, and on that very spot a white lily sprang forth from the earth that had received some of the blood that was still moist on her garments. This is why she is known as The Lily of Quito.
Her canonization was delayed for centuries. The process was initiated promptly, just twenty five days after her death, the time period mandated by Canon Law (at that time). Despite her incredible and well-known sanctity and miracles, and the advocacy of distinguished personages and brilliant scholars of Quito, it seems a supernatural force was preventing her canonization. For example on three occasions documentation of her virtues and miracles were sent to Rome, but each was waylaid – one by shipwreck, another by an attack by pirates, and the third by death to the courier. The home which served as her hermitage was converted into a convent, El Carmen Alto, which stands to this day in Old Town Quito. She was finally beatified in 1850 by Pope Pius IX. Gabriel García Moreno, Catholic president of Ecuador (and a martyr murdered by revolutionaries who will one day also be canonized), organized a shrine for her at the Jesuit Church of La Companía (Quito’s Sistine Chapel). Her remains are under the main altar and her guitar and a few other possession are in one of the eight side chapels.
St. Mariana was finally canonized in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, three-hundred years after her death! Providentially, this was a time when the Church would soon be changing drastically and would be in desperate need of her witness and atoning example, virtues quickly forgotten in our ‘modern’ Church. She can be considered a patroness of many causes, such as catechists, teachers, youth, sick, the dying, lay people having trouble discerning their vocations, religious, third order religious, health care workers, and even mothers, for she cared for the poor children of Quito as if she were there mother. She is also considered a Patroness for Homschooling Familes.
We surely live in sinful times. Our beloved country is steeped in horrible offenses that make God weep. Will we have a victim soul like Mariana to help us?
Saint Mariana, Lily of Quito, pray for us.
If you are interested, you can read even more about her at: http://www.ourladyofgoodsuccess.com/frames-3-4-2005/mariana-why-devotion.htm