Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres Quito Ecuador 1635 – “Our Lady of Good Fortune”

Feastday not known

Born not known

Died 1635

Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres was a Spanish Conceptionist sister who traveled from her Country to the New World to help found the Royal Convent in Quito, Ecuador. Favoured with many singular gifts from heaven, this chosen soul was given to know many future events, especially the grievous situation of the Church in the 20th century. The apparition of Our Lady when the visions of the 20th century were shown to Mother Mariana has been approved by the Church and Mother Mariana has been declared Venerable in the first step towards her canonization. On January 16, 1635, surrounded by her community and her Franciscan confessors, Mother Mariana made a solemn profession of Faith and then asked, as a last favour, to die on the ground, in imitation ot her Seraphic Father, St Francis. After receiving Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, she foretold the exact hour of her death: 3 p.m. Just before she died, she read he last will and testament, a moving testimony that gave her daughters inestimable advice about the religious life along with many prophecies concerning the order. During the wake , the sight of a blind girl was restored when a flower from the crown the encircled Mother Mariana’s head was touched to her eyes. In 1906, during the remodelling of the Convent, her three-Century old tomb was opened. They discovered the body of Mother Mariana de Jesus WHOLE AND INCORRUPT, complete with her habit and articles of penance that had been placed in the tomb with her. An exquisite aroma of Lilies emanated from her whole body. Thus God preserves some of his saints who practice heroic virtue and maintain holy chastity in their earthly lives.

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Like St Nicolas de Fluh she predicted the exact date of her death over 25 years later and that within two centuries Ecuador would cease to be a Spanish colony and become a Republic which it did on August 10. 1809. She also predicted “Dogma of the faith of the Immaculate Conception will be proclaimed during a time when the Church will be strongly attacked” ¹

Victim Soul

Our Lord informed Marianne that one of her nuns was in the clutches of Satan. He told Marianne that the only thing that could save this poor nun from eventually going to hell was if someone was willing to suffer the pains of Hell for five years for her. Marianne volunteered. Our Lord said to her “I desire hearts like yours my beloved spouse, for the salvation of souls. And such hearts will I always find in this my beloved convent. Have no fear. I will be your secret strength. You will suffer the five years in hell and in exchange the soul of your sister is already saved. She will first suffer a severe illness nun which you will take care of her in order to win and convert her, suffering the harshness of her abusiveness treatment. But after standing before the judgment and realizing her bad life she will recover and your hell will begin” Her biographer goes on to state “Marianne also saw the judgment through which this religious would pass where she would be condemned to remain purgatory until the day of the final judgment, though she was saved from the pains of Hell.” Our Lord revealed to several of her fellow nuns what Marianne’s experiencing of the pains of Hell was like, The description of this takes two pages in her biography bit the following sentence will give a slight description “The keenness of her senses were sharpened and quickened so that she would suffer both physically and morally the pains of this loss (of hope) and experience the feeling of a condemned soul” ²

Prophecies highly directed to the 20^th Century

On one occasion Sister Marianne saw Our Lord emerge from the tabernacle, suffering as he did on Golgotha. The Blessed Virgin was shedding tears at his feet. St John and Mary Magdalene were also there. Sister Marianne believing that she was the cause of Our Lord’s suffering said “Lord am I the guilty one?” Then her guardian Angel said “No, you are not to blame. Arise and approach, for God desires to reveal a great secret” Again she asked Our Lady if she (Marianne) was the cause of Our Lady’s sadness. Our Lady responded; No, it is not you, but the criminal world” ³

Punishments foretold for the 20^th Century

Then while watching Our Lord’s agony on the Cross, God the Father said “This punishment will be for the 20^th Century” Then she saw three swords over the head of Christ. On each was written “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity” Sister Marianne was further lead to understand that all of this specifically applied to the 20^th Century. Then Our Lady asked her: “My daughter will you sacrifice yourself for the people of this time? Marianne said “ I am willing” And almost immediately the swords moved away from the agonizing Christ and buried themselves in the heart of Sister Marianne, who fell as if dead through the violence of the pain. ⁴

Our Lady of Good Success

On February 2 1594 Sr Marianne had her first vision of Our Lady of Good success who states: “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” ⁵

On January 16^th 1599 Sister Marianne was ordered by Our Lady to have a statue made of Our Lady holding the child Jesus. The Story is too long to tell in full, but during the course of the sculpting by Senor Francisco del Castillo (a famous Ecuadoran sculptor) the face of Our Lady which till then was incomplete, was totally changed and finished in one night. The sculptor was stunned to find it complete and finished in one night. The sculptor was stunned to find it complete the next morning. Sor Marianne testifies that she saw St Francis, and the three archangels Raphael, Michael and Gabriel finish it in the twinkling of an eye around 3.00am in the morning. The statue was brought out of the convent and placed on the high altar twice a year for veneration by the faithful..Sr Marianne, states that Our Lady informed her that through the presence of her statue, Mary would henceforward be the true prioress of the convent. ⁶

Statue of Our Lady of Good Success and the Child Jesus

The statue resides in the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Quito, Ecuador. Twice a year it is brought out of the convent proper, and then placed on the high altar of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. In 1610, Our Lady instructed Sr Marianne de Jesus Torres to have a statue made of her and of the child Jesus being held in her arms. Under sworn testimony, Sr Marianne testified that Our Lady gave the following command “I ask and command you to have a statue made of me for the consolation and support of my monastery and the faithful of that time (the 20^th Century)…Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael along with the whole angelic choir will secretly take charge of the making of my statue” The Ecuadoran sculptor, Francisco del Castillo, was commissioned to begin work on the statue. When he had completed everything but the faces of Our Lady and the child Jesus, the following was reported by the nuns of the convent (In Ecuador called a monastery) on Jan 16. 1611: “early in the morning (at 3.00am) the fervent nuns arose to pray…Upon reaching the choir they heard melodius harmonies…they hastened to enter the choir (which was ) shining with a celestial light…and they saw that the angels had already finished the whole statue”. Later in the morning the sculptor came to work and was stunned to see the statue had been totally completed the previous night. He later attested to the truth of this miraculous event in a sworn handwritten document ⁷

Our Lady commanded Sr Marianne to have a statue made of her and the child Jesus. When Sr Marianne asked Our Lady how big to make the statue, Our Lady told her to make it full size. Sr Marianne then said she would need to give the sculptor the dimensions of the statue and asked what specific dimensions to give him. Our Lady told Marianne to take a seamstress’s tape measure and measure her and give those dimensions to the sculptor ⁸

Sister Marianne through humility asked Our Lady that she (Marianne) and her part in the production of this statue should remain hidden. Our Lady told Sr Marianne:

“As for your request that you name be hidden, this please me greatly, and I will do as you asked. Tell the Bishop that it is the will of my most Holy Son of mine that your name be hidden at all costs, both within as well as outside the cloister, for it is not fitting at this time that anyone know the details or origin of how this statue came to be made. But this knowledge will only become know to the general public in the 20^th century” ⁹

“During this epoch the church will find itself attacked by waves of a secret sect and this Ecuadoran land will be agonizing because of the corruption of customs, unbridled luxury, extravagance, the impious press and laic education. Know beloved daughter that when your name is made known in the 20^th Century, there will be many who will not believe, claiming that this devotion is not pleasing to God…” ¹⁰

“A simple humble faith in the truth of my apparitions to you my predilect child will be reserved for humble and fervent souls, 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 self-satisfied with empty knowledge…” ¹¹

“The Most Holy Trinity confirmed the desire of my Queen. Assuring that God will bless all those who, by their support and help, contribute in the making of the Holy Statue as well as all those who help to spread this devotion throughout the centuries, making known its origin and these apparitions in the 20^th century. This will be a time of great corruption of customs, and this devotion will be the safeguard of this land during the times to come when it will no longer be a colony, but a free and libertine Republic. Let us weep, pray and do penance so that this time will not be of long duration…” ¹²

“The sacred sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised for in doing this one scorns and defiles the church of God and even God himself, represented by his priests. The demon will try to persecute the ministries of our Lord in every possible way and he will labour with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests who will thus scandalize the church will incite the hatred of bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic church to fall upon all the priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the church to the great majority of good priests and to the supreme pastor and vicar of Christ on earth who 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 which he is king and father. Moreover in these unhappy times there will be unbridled luxury which acting thus to snare the rest into sin will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will lose themselves. Innocence will almost no longer be found in Children nor modesty and in this supreme moment of need the church, those whom it behoves to speak will fall silent…” ¹³

Referring to our devotion to Our Lady of Good Success St Michael told Sr Marianne in an apparition “Through this devotion Our Lord will grant great miracles, spiritual as well as temporal, first to your (Sr Marianne’s) community, so that in it he will always find a safeguard (victim souls) and secondly, to the devout faithful, above all to those at the end of the 18^th and 20^th Centuries, for those times will see the chosen ones of his heart, times during which hell would be unleashed and many souls would be lost” ¹⁴

Later the child Jesus appeared to Sr Marianne and told her many things including: Here (in the convent) I will have a secret few, and always unknown souls who will give me pleasure and will make amends to Me, disarming me when my justice will be tried to the limit by the evils and sacrileges of the 20^th Century” ¹⁵

The Child Jesus speaks

“Know moreover that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations not only for 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 the divine Ire. Straying from their divine mission they degrade themselves in such as way before the eyes of God, they are the ones who quicken the rigors of punishments. Because detaching themselves from Me they end up living only a superficial life of the soul maintaining a distance from me that is unworthy of my ministers. With their frigidity and lack of confidence they act as if I were a stranger to them…” ¹⁶

“I am greatly pleased by religious souls that take upon themselves the sublime task of sanctifying the clergy by means of their prayers, sacrifices and prayers. Throughout time I will choose for myself such souls so that uniting themselves to me they will labour, pray and suffer for the attainment of this most noble end with special glory awaiting them in heaven…” ¹⁷

“That which is most sorrowful is that even in the secular clergy there will be much to be desired, for the ministries of the altar will have forgotten their sublime mission of identifying themselves with my most Holy Son through means of knowing themselves and humble daily and fervent prayer. They will live only a superficial life of the soul without detaching themselves from material things, being too greatly attached to family and to riches. They will think they can aspire to sanctity in the priestly state by means of practising one or two virtues without taking care to construct the solid foundation of a profound humility without which no virtue can exist. How can anyone without humility give pleasure or delight to God? For God resists the period and exalts the humble and simple of heart to whom he delights in manifesting and communicating His secrets” ¹⁸

Another vision

Our Lady of Good Fortune appeared again to Mother Mary Anne of Jesus Torres, in Quito, Ecuador, on February 2, 1634, with the child. Jesus on her left arm and the sceptre in her right hand. At her appearance the sanctuary light went out, which Our Lady stated had five meanings. Those having to do with the eclipse of the Church and the lack of a Pope in our century are:

“First meaning: at the end of the 19th century and for a large part of the 20th, various heresies will flourish on this earth which will have become a free republic. The precious light of the Faith will go out in souls because of the almost total moral corruption: in those times there will be great physical and moral calamities, in private and in public. The little number of souls keeping the Faith and practicing the virtues will undergo cruel and unspeakable sufferings…” ¹⁹

“Second meaning: My communities will be abandoned; they will be swamped in a fathomless sea of bitterness and will seem drowned in tribulations. How many true vocations will be lost for lack of skilful and prudent direction to form them! Each mistress of novices will need to be a soul of prayer, knowing how to discern spirits…” ²⁰

“The third meaning of the lamp's going out is that in those times, the air will be filled with the spirit of impurity which like a deluge of filth will. flood the streets, squares and public places. The licentiousness will be such that there will be no more virgin souls in the world…” ²¹

“A fourth meaning is that by having gained control of all the social classes, the sects will tend to penetrate with great skill into the heart of families and destroy even the children. The devil will take glory in feeding perfidiously on the hearts of children. The innocence of childhood will almost disappear. Thus priestly vocations will be lost, it will be a real disaster. Priests will abandon their sacred duties and will depart from the path marked out for them by God. Then the Church will go through a dark night for lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over it with love, gentleness, strength and prudence, and numbers of priests will lose the spirit of God, thus placing their souls in great danger…” ²²

"The fifth reason that the lamp was extinguished is due to the laxity and the negligence of those who possess great wealth who will indifferently stand by and witness the Church being oppressed, virtue being persecuted, and the triumph of the demon, without piously employing their riches for the destruction of this evil and the restoration of the Faith.". ²³

“The most Holy Trinity confirmed the desire of my Queen, assuring that God will bless all those who, by their support and help, contribute in the making of the Holy Statue, as well as all those who help spread this devotion (to Our Lady of Good Success) throughout the centuries, making known its origin and these apparitions in the 20th century. This will be a time of great corruption of customs. The sacred sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised, for in doing this, one scorns and defiles the Church of God, and even God Himself, represented by His priests. The Demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way…” ²⁴

Recorded in Mother Mariana’s Last Will and Testament she stated, “While the Divine Master hung from that shameful gibbet of the Cross with His life slowly ebbing away amidst almost infinite pain and torment, He spoke the fourth word or testament which He bequeathed to mankind by giving us His own Mother for our mother. He thus addressed the Virgin, saying ‘Woman, behold thy son,’ the beloved disciple. And turning to him said, ‘Behold thy Mother.’ ……: Behold your Heavenly Mother, Mary Most Holy of Good Success. She will always give you good success.”²⁵

“Have a great love for the Blessed Virgin; imitate her virtues, above all her profound humility, her ardent love for God and poor sinners, her simplicity and childlike innocence. Let there be no deceits or hypocrisies in your souls. Preserve and propagate devotion under the invocation of Our Lady of Good Success, for with it you will obtain from Jesus and Mary everything you ask… You should also devotedly care for your true treasure and make her known and loved by as many souls as possible; assuring them that with this devotion they will always obtain good successes both in time and eternity…Have recourse to her in all your spiritual and temporal needs. When your souls suffer temptations and are immersed in grief, and if the star of your vocation is hidden by Divine permission from the sight of your soul, turn to her with confidence and say, ‘Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.’” ²⁶

Our Lady of Good Success promised, “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.”²⁷

“For all times” she said “I have need of valiant souls to save my Church and the prevaricating world.” ²⁸

References

1. Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 317

2. Fr Francisco Anquita and Angel Francisco Perez Compendium of the Cuadernon as quoted Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 318

3. ibid p 319

4. ibid p 320

5. Our Lady of Good Success Novena and Prayer Booklet, Prologue, pg. 13

6. Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 323

7. ibid p 324

8. ibid p 325

9. ibid p 326

10. ibid

11. ibid

12. ibid p 326-327

13. ibid p 327

14. ibid p 328

15. ibid

16. Unpublished Manuscript of Life of Sor Marianne de Jesus Torres as quoted by Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 398-399

17. ibid p 399

18. ibid p 400

19. Our Lady of Good Success –Prophecies for Our Times,1st Edition, pg. 50

20 ibid p 51

21. ibid p 52

22. Ibid p 52

23. ibid

24. Source unavailable. Please write in

25. A Spanish Mystic in Quito: Sor Mariana de Jesus Torres, pg. 129

26. Ibid., pg. 130 – 131

27. Our Lady of Good Success –Prophecies for Our Times, 1st Edition, pg. 51

28. Our Lady of Good Success –Prophecies for Our Times, 1st Edition, pg. 49