Our Patroness

At the end of the 16th century, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (1563–1635), a Spanish Conceptionist sister who emigrated from Spain to help found the Royal Convent in Quito, Ecuador. In 1599, Our Lady of Good Success appeared to Mother Mariana and requested that a statue be made of her. This statue was to contain imagery that would demonstrate her role as Abbess of the Conceptionist Convent and her great intercessory power before her Divine Child. 

Our Lady indicated that Francisco del Castillo, a God-fearing man and superb sculptor, would be the one to carry out this holy task. Mindful of his unworthiness, del Castillo set to work, but the statue was miraculously finished by the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael on January 16, 1611. 

Our Lady of Good Success also gave Mother Mariana a series of prophetic messages about the crisis that would afflict the Church in the 20th century. Heresy, blasphemy, impurity, loss of vocations, tepidity among religious, and greed among clerics were among the threats that the Mother of God predicted the Church would face. She also said that all seven sacraments would fall into disrepute and disuse. 

For those who have eyes to see, it is clear that all of these have come to pass in the Catholic Church following Vatican II (1962-1965). To atone for this, the Blessed Mother asked that Mother Mariana offer herself as a victim soul, to which the saintly nun generously agreed. 

Our Lady also predicted a virtuous Catholic president in the 19th century who would consecrate his nation to the Sacred Heart and eventually be martyred in the square adjacent to the convent, a prophecy that was fulfilled in the life and death of Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875). As she would later affirm at Fátima three centuries later, the Queen of Heaven promised to overthrow and trample the Devil at the moment when his power on earth will seem to have reached its height.