Saint of the day May 26: Saint Mariana de Jesús. Catholic Saints

Every May 26, the Catholic Church celebrates Santa Mariana de Jesús, an Ecuadorian saint known as ‘the Azucena of Quito’ and who was canonized by Pope Pius XII.

Saint John Paul II said of her: “Her poverty bears joyful and credible testimony of God as the true wealth of the human heart, answers the idolatry of money and becomes a prophetic voice in the midst of society.”

The Father watches over all his children

Mariana de Paredes Flores Granobles y Jaramillo was born in Quito (Ecuador) in 1618. From a young age she showed the delicacy of her soul, sweet, modest and modest. Unfortunately, she had been orphaned at a very young age – only four years old – and she was left in the care of her older sister, already married.

Mariana showed talent for music, as well as sewing, knitting and embroidery. She liked to learn and play like any girl. And, along with those gifts and abilities that adorned her being, she used to retire, whenever she could, to pray in some corner of the house and practice some penance.

Consecration to God

After receiving First Communion, Mariana had her first spiritual movements. Her love for Jesus was so great that it flowed from her heart that she made a vow of perpetual chastity, to which she later added those of poverty and obedience. A few years later, with the guidance of her spiritual directors, she began to understand that God did not want her in a monastery.

So the young girl set up a closed space in one part of her house, where she prayed, fasted and did penance for the forgiveness of sins. Most of the time she spent in silence, finding refuge in Christ. And she only left to go to church in the mornings. This is how his adolescence and her youth passed.

His mission: prayer and advice

His apostolate focused on prayer for his neighbor, for those who need God. Some people began to look to her for advice and encouragement. With her help many obtained the peace they were looking for and soon the first conversions began to occur.

At the suggestion of her confessor, Mariana became a tertiary of Saint Francis of Assisi. Furthermore, she considered herself a spiritual disciple of Saint Teresa of Ávila and, at the same time, she felt like a daughter of the Society of Jesus.

Once upon a time, Mariana de Jesús began to attend a mass that was usually celebrated by a priest with gifts as a great orator. Curiously, the priest’s histrionics did not lend itself to any criticism or warning of those that prudence commands. On the contrary, he called everyone to flattery and flattery. Then, Mariana decided to take matters into her own hands and, warned by the priest’s vanity, she approached him and confronted him after one of his “brilliant” sermons. Her words were a dart that hit the target: “Look, Father, God sent you to collect souls for heaven, and not to collect applause from this ground.” Thus, the clergyman became evident in his worldly pretensions and stopped seeking appreciation for himself.

The most beautiful flower

The story goes that the saint fell ill and the doctor ordered her to be ‘bled’ (a practice without much support but which was believed to help in the healing processes). The extracted blood was placed in a pot, in which a beautiful lily unexpectedly appeared.

A series of terrible earthquakes hit the city and the saint went to the church to pray and ask God to take her life first as long as the tremors stopped. When she left the temple she began to feel sick, but in the following days there was no other tremor. The catastrophe, which had continued for days and days, claiming many lives and destroying homes, seemed to have come to an end.

However, the tremors were followed by an epidemic that killed hundreds of people. Saint Mariana prayed and prayed that God would forgive the sins of her children and offered her pain in exchange for the disease not spreading further. God granted him that grace and from that day on no more people died from that disease.

In recognition of the powerful intercession of Santa Mariana de Jesús on behalf of the people of Quito, the Congress of the Republic of Ecuador granted her the title of ‘Heroine of the Homeland’ in 1946.

The saint left for the Father’s House on May 26, 1645 and a large number of faithful attended the funeral. At the time of her transit, Mariana was only 26 years old. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

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