OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS

The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin under the title "Our Lady of Good Success" took place at the turn of the 16th Century, but with prophecies specifically referring to the END OF THE 20TH CENTURY, and beyond. The favored nun who witnessed these apparitions was Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, a Spanish Conceptionist Sister who came to the New World from Spain for the founding of a convent in Quito, Ecuador, the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception. The apparitions aside, Mother Mariana was a devout and humble soul whose sanctity was well regarded by the other Sisters in the Order, long before Our Lady began to appear to her. For this reason, Mother Mariana has been declared by the Church a Venerable, which is the first hurdle to eventual canonization.

In 1593, at the age of 30, Mother Mariana became Abbess of the Convent, around which time a revolt was taking place in the Church in Quito, and a conspiring nun, known as "La Capitana" was making trouble in the Convent. On February 2, 1594, while Mother Mariana was praying earnestly for a successful overthrow of the rebellious persons, Our Lady appeared to her in the convent chapel with the Child Jesus on Her left arm, while holding a crosier in Her right hand. She addressed the nun as follows:

"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...I carry My Divine Son in my left arm in order to restrain the Hand of Divine Justice, always so ready to chastise this unhappy and criminal world."

The Blessed Virgin explained to Mother Mariana that the reason She carried the Abbess' staff (the Crosier) in her right hand was because of Her intention to rule the Royal Convent as the True Abbess and Mother. While this would ensure the Royal Convent's protection during through the rebellion taking place, Our Lady furthermore told her favored daughter that She was to remain Abbess of the Royal Convent until the end of the world!

"Satan will begin to try to destroy this work of God, making use of my ungrateful daughters... (the rebellious nuns) 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."

On January 16, 1599, Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana for the second time, saying that Her Divine Son was about to unleash a terrible chastisment on the Convent and the Bishopric in Quito for the scandals occurring there. Then She said: "In a short time, the country in which you live will cease to be a Colony, and become a Free Republic. Then, known by the name of Ecuador, it will need heroic souls to sustain it in the face of so many public and private calamities. Here, (in this Convent) God will always find those souls  (holy and heroic nuns) like hidden violets. Accursed would be Quito without this convent.

Our Lady gave Mother Mariana some further prophecies regarding the future of Quito and Ecuador, and asked for a statue to be made of Her and the Christ Child as a permanent reminder that She would forever remain the True Abbess of this Convent. In describing the statue as it was to be done (according to Our Lord's designs), Our Lady said:

"In my left arm place My Divine Child: first, that men may 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 see 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."

PROPHECIES FOR THE 20TH CENTURY

The third apparition took place on January 20, 1610. The three great Archangels, Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, appeared to Mother Mariana first, and then a little later Our Lady and the Infant Jesus came to speak with her again. After showing Mother Mariana all the nuns that would live in this Convent until the end of the world, and which would go to Heaven and which would be perpetually damned in Hell, Our Lady promised that because of the good holy nuns of the future Quito would be spared many blows from the Divine Justice through the coming centuries. Then, the Mother of God went on 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 then will 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 particularly 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 that of Confirmation...The Devil will make a great effort to destroy the Sacrament of Confession by means of persons in position of authority... (the various ranks of the Catholic Clergy) The same will happen with Holy Communion. "Alas! How deeply I grieve to manifest to you the many enormous sacrileges - both public, and also secret - that will occur from profanations of the Holy Eucharist!

"During this time...the Sacrament of Extreme Unction will be little esteemed. Many people will die without receiving it - either because of 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 countless souls will be deprived of innumerable graces, consolations and the strength they need to make that great leap from time to eternity...

"As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ and His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. 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 and the precious light of Faitth will gradually be extinguished until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs.

"The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders (The Priesthood) will be ridiculed, oppressed, and despised...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 scandalize the Christian people, will make the hatred of the bad Catholics and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings upon the good pastors of the Church...

"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... (eternally damned) 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. (the Pope)"

On February 2, Our Lady told Mother Mariana: "During this epoch, (20th Century) 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 and extravagance, 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.

"Know, beloved daughter, that when your name will become known in the 20th Century, there will be many who will not believe, claiming that this devotion is not pleasing to God...A simple, humble faith in the truth of My Apparitions to you...will be reserved for humble and fervent souls 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 silence."  

The statue requested by Our Lady that was commissioned by Her Divine Son Himself was finally begun after numerous delays that did not please Him. When the statue was nearly completed, the artist left for Europe to procure the finest paints so that he could best finish the faces of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus She carried in her left arm. He promised to return by January 16, 1611 to finish the project.

On the morning of the day he said he would return, Mother Mariana was praying in the chapel, the entire sanctuary was illumined by "celestial lights", and the Abbess became aware of the Presence of God in His Three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael then appeared, leading an army of angels to the choir where they finished the statue themselves. Upon completion, after Worshipping God and then paying honor to the Queen of Heaven and Earth, Our Lady Herself approached the statue and entered in it, signifying that the sculpture truly represented Her as ruler of the Royal Convent through all future epochs until the end of the world.

When the sculptor arrived later that day, he was overcome by the beauty of the completed statue, and new it could not have been finished by human hands. On February 2, 1611, the Bishop of Quito solemnly blessed the miraculous statue under the name of Mary of Good Success of the Purification. She was then carried in procession to the upper choir to the throne prepared for Her from which She was to reign as Abbess over the Convent for the rest of time.

On the Feast of the Purification, 1634, Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana again, saying - among other things - the following:

"...(A)t the end of the 19th Century, and into the 20th, various heresies will be propagated in this land...As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious Light of Fatih will be extinguished in souls by almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private...

"In order to free (mankind) 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 much confidence in God. To test this faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when everything will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the beginning of the complete Restoration.