by Marian
Theresa Horvat
Question: I have never heard of
the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success. Is this a new apparition? Has it
been approved by the Church?
Answer: This is not a
new apparition. It took place in the early 17th century. The revelations of Our
Lady of Good Success and devotion to Her miraculous Statue have been approved by
the Catholic Church since the beginning. It was the 9th Bishop of Quito,
Salvador de Ribera, who attested in official documents to the miraculous
completion of the Statue by St. Francis of Assisi and the three Archangels – St.
Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael – and presided over the anointing of the
solemn consecration of the Statue in the Church of the Royal Convent of the
Immaculate Conception on February 2, 1611. The devotion and apparitions were
also authorized and promoted by the next Bishop of Quito, Pedro de Oviedo, who
governed the Diocese from 1630 to 1646. Thus this devotion has enjoyed the
support and approval of the Church since its very beginning.
Question: What do these
revelations talk about?
Answer: Many of the
prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success have already been fulfilled. She
predicted the proclamation of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Papal
Infallibility, the consecration of that country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
the martyrdom of a Catholic president of Ecuador by Masons (President Gabriel
Garcia Moreno, assassinated in 1875), and many others things that have come to
pass. (Msgr.
Luis E. Cadena Y Almeida, postulator of the cause for beatification of the
Servant of God, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, has written a book in Spanish on
the many prophetic messages that have already taken place. Mrs. Horvath
translated his book into English, under the title “Our Lady of Good Success:
Prophecies for Our Times.”)
The most important
prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success, however, spoke of the worldwide crisis
in the Church and society that would begin in the 19th century and extend
throughout the 20th century. During that time, She warned, there would be an
almost total corruption of customs and Satan would rule almost completely by
means of the Masonic sects. In the Catholic Church the Sacraments would be
profaned and abused, and the light of Faith would be almost completely
extinguished in souls. Truly religious souls would be reduced to a small number
and many vocations would perish. Great impurity would reign and people would be
without any care for spiritual matters.
Question: Who was Mother Mariana
de Jesus Torres, the sister who received those
revelations?
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Mother Mariana de Jesus
Torres
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Answer: Mother Mariana
de Jesus Torres (1563-1635) was a Spanish Conceptionist sister who traveled from
her country to the New World to help to found the Royal Convent. The life of
Mother Mariana was truly extraordinary. The number of visions and mystical
favors granted to her as well as the miracles worked through her intercession
are numerous. During her live, she was the superior of the Convent three times.
During her first term as Abbess, she suffered persecutions from a group of
rebellious nuns who wanted to relax the Rule. The rebellion grew, and the
“inobservant” sisters put Mother Mariana and the other Spanish Founding Mothers
in the Convent prison. Mother Mariana accepted all this and agreed to Our Lord's
condition to suffer the torments of Hell for five years in order to obtain the
conversion of the leader of those rebellious sisters.
One of the most
extraordinary facts of her life was a mystical-physical phenomenon: her several
deaths and resurrections. Documented records from the Convent and Diocesan
archives show that this truly holy religious died three times. Her first death
was in 1582. Standing before the Judgment Seat, she was judged blameless and
given a choice: to remain in celestial glory in Heaven or to return to earth to
suffer as an expiatory victim for the sins of the 20th century. She chose the
latter. Her second death was on Good Friday of 1588 after an apparition where
she was shown the horrible abuses and heresies that would exist in the Church in
our times. She was resurrected two days later on Easter Sunday morning. She
finally died on January 16, 1635. Miracles worked through her intercession
immediately followed.
The body of Mother
Mariana de Jesus Torres, along with the incorrupt body of another Founding
Mother, is preserved in the lower level of the cloistered Convent. In 1906
during the remodeling of the Convent, the sarcophagus in which she had been
buried in 1635 was opened and her body was discovered, whole and incorrupt.
Today it is preserved in the lower level of the cloistered Convent.
Question: Why haven't I heard of
these apparitions until recently?
Answer: It can seem
strange that such an important devotion has been almost unknown outside of
Ecuador for so long a time. But there is a supernatural explanation for this.
The Mother of God told Mother Mariana various times that only after three
centuries of mysterious silence would the message of the apparitions become
known. Our Lady linked the spread of this devotion to a miraculous and
extraordinary intervention she would make for the restoration of the Catholic
Church when the crisis would be so great that almost all would seem lost. Our
Lady also promised to give her good success to those who had recourse to her
under this invocation during these difficult times. Thus, in a very special way,
this prophecy is for our days.
Question: What is the origin of
the invocation?
Answer: In 1607 Pope
Paul V gave the name Virgin of Good Success to a statue miraculously found by
two Spanish Brothers of the Order of Minims for the Service of the Sick. After
the death of Brother Bernandine de Obregón, its founder, Gabriel de Fontaned was
elected his successor. Accompanied by Guillermo de Rigosa, the new Superior set
off for Rome to plead the case for official approval of their Order before the
Roman Pontiff. As they were passing through the town of Traigueras (in
Catalonia), they were caught in a storm so severe it made them fear for their
lives.
In their fear, they
prayed to Our Lady for shelter and succor. Seeing a soft light in the distant
mountains, they left the path and climbed toward it. They found a cave carved
like a polished stone and fragrant with flowers that enshrined a very beautiful
statue of Holy Mary carrying Her Divine Son in Her left arm, a scepter in Her
right, and a precious crown on Her head. The dress was simple but elegant. They
fell to their knees to venerate the beautiful statue, and wondered how She came
to be in this distant place.
The next day they
traveled to the closest hamlets to make inquiries. None of the inhabitants, not
even the eldest who knew the history of everyone and everything in the area, had
every heard of the cave or the statue. Thus, the Brothers became the owners of
the holy statue, offering Her their warmest thanks and choosing Her as their
special patroness. With this amiable and powerful companion, they continued on
their journey to Rome.
Arriving there, they
told the Sovereign Pontiff what had happened, and Pope Paul V not only
acknowledged the supernatural nature of that discovery, but upon confirming the
new Order, he placed it under the protection of the same Virgin, whom he gave
the name of the Virgin of Good Success.
The statue was placed in
the Royal Hospital of Madrid, and soon became famous for the numerous favors
granted by Heaven through it. In 1641 King Philip III ordered the construction
of the splendid sanctuary in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. With the passing of
time as the devotion spread, the statue was copied and placed in various places,
sometimes under a different invocation. Today there are a number of localities
in Spain where this image is venerated: Orduña, La Puebla de Gordon, Tudela,
Abla, among others.
The
invocation was not long in making its way across the ocean to the New World. The
Blessed Virgin deigned to favor the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in
Quito in a very special way by means of this particular avocation. In an
apparition to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, the Blessed Virgin appeared and
asked that a statue be made of Her under the title of Good Success. She should
be made just as she appeared to Her there, with the Child Jesus in her right
arm, and the Abbess' crozier and the keys of the Convent in her right hand. She
should be placed above the Abbess chair in the upper choir because She desired
to be Abbess of that Convent until the end of time. And so the Virgin of Good
Success of Quito appears with the crosier in Her right hand, instead of the
scepter that She carries in Madrid.
The Sisters of the
Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Quito have always had a great love for
their heavenly Abbess. The Statue of the Virgin of Good Success has been loved
and venerated by the people of Quito for almost three centuries.
Question: How is the devotion
spreading today?
Answer: Today the fame
of this apparition is extending far beyond Quito. Our Lady of Good Success told
Mother Mariana that She wanted to be known and loved throughout the world, and
that the devotion would begin to spread only in the 20th century. This is, in
fact, what has happened. She reserved this devotion for these times because the
Church would be so embattled and suffering that only the divine power and love
of the Blessed Virgin would sustain the faithful.
Question: What is meant by the
words “good success”? In English, it can give the impression that one is asking
for material success.
Answer: That is not the
original Spanish connotation. The invocation of “good success” refers to the
happy development of the gestation of Christ from the Conception to Birth. The
invocation of “good success” was understood by the faithful in its first meaning
as a simple plea for safe childbirth. This easily extended to the invocation of
Mary's meditation and intercession in times of personal need (sickness, travel,
marriage).
The expression later
broadened further to be understood in the sense of good success in various
undertakings. For example, its popularity in the seafaring regions of Catalonia,
Isle of Gomera, and Granada indicates a connection with maritime travel. Sailors
would ask Mary for a safe return to port. The extended meaning can also be that
of a holy death. In short, sucesso, meaning success or luck, refers to
well-being and safety where strictly human means find no issue.
Question: When can the
public see the miraculous Statue of Our Lady of Good Success?
Answer: The miraculous
Statue of Our Lady of Good Success is taken from the cloistered upper choir
three times a year and placed above the main altar of the Convent Church, so
that it can be venerated by the people of Quito. It can be seen by the public at
the following times:
1. During a nine-day
novena in commemoration of the Feast Day of the Purification of Our Lady
(February 2) – from around January 24 to February 4;
2. During the month of
May;
3. During the month of
October.
Mother Mariana: victim for the 20th
century
Mariana Francisca was
born in Spain the province of Viscaya in 1563, the first-born child of Diego
Cadiz and Maria Berriochoa Alvarez. On the day of her First Communion, at age 9,
Our Lady appeared to her and told her she was destined to be a religious of Her
Immaculate Conception in the New World. In 1577, when Marianna 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.
In 1582, when Mother
Mariana was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, for the first time she was
given to see the heresy, blasphemy and impurity that would inundate the world as
punishment in the 20th century. Our Lady asked her: “My daughter, will you
sacrifice yourself for the people of this time?” Mother Mariana replied, “I am
willing.” From the violence of the shock of previewing the horrors of our day,
Mother Mariana fell dead.
Historic and documented
evidence record that this holy religious truly died in 1582 and resurrected.
Before the divine tribunal, she was given the choice to remain in heaven or
return to suffer in the world. Following the example of Our Lady, who left the
glories of heaven to protect her children during those difficult first years of
the fledgling Church, Mother Mariana chose to return to life to expiate for the
great sins of our times. (A second death and resurrection happened on Easter Sunday
of 1588.)
The Existence of Hell
The First Secret of
Fatima breaks the myth, the lie of 20th century, that hell does not exist. On
July 13, 1917, Our Lady told three children, ages 10, 8,7, to “pray, pray very
much because many souls go to Hell. Then She opened Her hands and showed the
three children a hole in the ground, a place. That hole, said Lucy, was like a
sea of fire in which we saw the souls of human forms, men and women, burning,
shouting, and crying in despair.” Mary said to the children: “You have seen Hell
where sinners go when they do not repent.” A Roman Catholic dogma: The existence
of Hell.
During her life, Mother
Mariana begged Our Lord to save the soul of an insubordinate sister in the
convent. He agreed that this rebellious sister would be saved, although she
would be required to remain in purgatory until the end of the world. In
recompense, Mother Mariana had to suffer five years on earth the pains of hell.
For five years, she suffered all the tortures of the senses reserved for souls
in that terrible place and the most intense suffering of the sense of the loss
of God.
It seems very clear that
Our Lady wanted 20th century man to realize that hell exists: it is a place, and
it is not empty.
The breakdown of morals and
customs
During Jacinta's stay at
the orphanage of Our Lady of Miracles in Lisbon in 1920, Our Lady told her, “The
sins that lead more souls to hell are the sins of the flesh.” There were other
prophecies She revealed to the little girl: “Styles will come that will offend
Our Lord very much. Persons who serve God should not follow the styles. The
Church does not have styles. Our Lord is always the same.” She said that the
sins of impurity would be so great there would be almost no virgin souls. She
said that many marriages are not good, that they do not please Our Lord and are
not of God. Finally, Jacinta repeated continually to Lucia and Mother Godinho:
“Pray much for priests and religious. Priests should be pure, very
pure!”
Three centuries before,
in Quito, Ecuador, on Jan. 20, 1610, Our Lady appeared carrying a crozier in Her
right hand and her Divine Son in her left arm so that “all will know that I am
merciful and understanding. Let them come to me, for I will lead them to Him.”
She told Mother Mariana that in the twentieth century “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 particularly on the
children in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of
these times.” Obviously she is speaking of the secular humanist revolution about
which so much has been written that has completely invaded the secular as well
as religious institutions of our times.
Our Lady continued,
describing the abuses that would attack each of the Sacraments: “Woe to the
children of these times because it will be difficult to receive the Sacrament of
Baptism and also that of Confirmation.” She warned that the devil would
assiduously try to destroy the sacrament of Confession and Holy Communion. She
lamented the many sacrileges and abuses of the Blessed Sacrament that would
occur. The Sacrament of Extreme Unction would be little esteemed and many people
would die without receiving it, thus denied assistance they would need for that
“great leap from time to Eternity.”
The Sacred Sacrament of
Holy Orders would be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. The demon would labor
unceasingly to corrupt the clergy and would succeed with many of them. And these
“depraved priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the
hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and
Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will
bring enormous sufferings upon the good pastors of the Church.”
About the Sacrament of
Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, she said this:
“Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the
objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live
in sin. The Christian spirit will
rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the
point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. In
these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury that would 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, those who should speak will fall silent.”
Our Lady told Mother
Mariana, the religious Conceptionist who received the revelations, that the
souls who would remain faithful in those difficult times would need great
strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. Moments would come
when everything would seem to be lost and paralyzed, but that would be the
moment, she promised, of the “happy beginning of the complete restoration.” “My
hour will arrive” she foretold, “when I, in an amazing manner, will overthrow
proud Satan, crushing him under my feet, chaining him in the infernal abyss,
leaving the Church and the land free of this cruel tyranny.”
Thus, while the message
of Our Lady of Good Success is quite sad and serious, it is also one of great
hope. It is the promise echoed by Our Lady at Fatima in 1917: “In the end, My
Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Copies of the book
“Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for our times” (72 pages) can be purchased
for $7 U.S. each from: Tradition in Action, Inc., P.O. Box
23135, Los Angeles, CA 90023. Add $3 for U.S. orders. Canadian orders should add $2 for each
order.
This article was published in the May-June-July, 2004
issue of “Michael”.
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