From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
26 May =E2=80=93 Saint Mariana de Jesus de Paredes OFS
=C2 =E2=80=9CThe Lily of Quito,=E2=80=9DThird Order Franciscan, Hermit, P= enitent, Mystic,
Ecstatic, miracle-worker and she was endowed with the charism of
prophecy =E2=80=93 born as Mar=C3=ADa Ana de Jes=C3=BAs de Paredes y Flores=
on 31
October 1618 at Quito, Ecuador and died on 26 May 1645 at Quito,
Ecuador, aged 26. St Mariana is first Canonised Saint of Ecuador and
she has been declared a National Heroine. Patronages =E2=80=93 Ecuador, Americas, bodily ills, loss of parents, people rejected by religious
orders, sick people, sickness. Her Incorrupt body is enshrined in the
Cathedral of La Iglesia de la Compa=C3=B1=C3=ADa de Jes=C3=BAs.
Mariana de Jesus de Paredes was born in the city of Quito, in the New
Kingdom of Granada (modern-day Ecuador).=C2 She was born of aristocratic parents on both sides of her family, her father was Don Girolamo
Flores Zenel de Paredes, a nobleman of Toledo, Spain and her mother
was Do=C3=B1a Mariana Cranobles de Xaramilo, a descendant of one of the
best Spanish families. Mariana was the youngest of eight children and
it is claimed her birth was accompanied by most unusual phenomena in
the heavens, clearly connected with the child and juridically attested
at the time of the process of her Beatification.
She was orphaned at a very young age and, thereafter, she was raised
by her older sister, Jer=C3=B3nima de Paredes and the latter's husb=
and,
Cosme de Caso.=C2 Mariana was drawn to a spiritual life, her sister and brother-in-law allowed her to live in seclusion in their house, living =E2=80=9Cthe life of an uncloistered beata,=E2=80=9D similar to Rose of Lim=
a to whom
she is often compared. She was refused entry into a convent, despite supplication by her brother-in-law and surrogate father, Cosme de
Caso. She subjected herself to bodily mortification, with the aid of
her Indian servant. She did not live in total seclusion but rather
focused her spiritual life on the nearby Jesuit church, where she
participated in a number of apostolates.
Her spiritual life was closely connected to the Jesuits and her
religious name =E2=80=9Cde Jes=C3=BAs=E2=80=9D was no doubt intentional. Fo= llowing her
death in 1645, her funeral and burial were in the Jesuit church. The
funeral sermon that the priest Fr Alonso de Rojas preached emphasised
her bodily mortification and renunciation of the flesh and put her
forward as a model for females in Quito to emulate. =E2=80=9CLearn girls of Quito, from your fellow countrywoman, [to prefer] holiness over
beauty, virtues over ostentation.=E2=80=9D The sermon became a key document
in the long process to establish her saintliness, Beatification (1853)
and final Canonisation (1950).
The Franciscans claimed de Paredes as a holy person. She did wear the Franciscan scapular and sash but her 17th-century Jesuit hagiographer,
Jacinto Mor=C3=A1n de Butr=C3=B3n, confirmed that the Jesuits nurtured her spiritual life. Soon after Mariana's 1645 death, the Franciscan
province of Peru, based in Lima, included a biography of Mariana in
the history of the province citing the Jesuit funeral sermon as a
source. She received the habit of the Third Order from the Franciscans
in her native town of Quito. According to her Jesuit hagiographer,
Mariana did not go to the Franciscan church to receive the garments
but sent someone else.
It is reported that the fast which she kept was so strict that she
took scarcely an ounce of dry bread every eight or ten days. The food
which miraculously sustained her life, as in the case of Catherine of
Siena and Rose of Lima, was, according to the sworn testimony of many witnesses, the Eucharist alone, which she received every morning in
Holy Communion.
Mariana possessed an ecstatic gift of prayer and is said to have been
able to predict the future, see distant events as if they were passing
before her, read the secrets of hearts, cure diseases by a mere sign
of the Cross or by sprinkling the sufferer with holy water and at
least once restored a dead person to life. During the 1645 earthquakes
and subsequent epidemics in Quito, she publicly offered herself as a
victim for the city and died shortly thereafter.
It is also reported that, on the day she died, her sanctity was
revealed in a wonderful manner =E2=80=93 immediately after her death, a pur=
e
white lily sprang up from her blood, blossomed and bloomed, a miracle
which has given her the title of =E2=80=9CThe Lily of Quito.=E2=80=9D The R= epublic of
Ecuador has declared her a national heroine.
St Mariana was Beatified on 10 November 1853, Rome by Pope Pius IX and
was Canonised on 9 July 1950 Rome, by Pope Pius XII.
St Mariana's incorrupt body is exposed and venerated at her shrine =
at
the Cathedral of La Iglesia de la Compa=C3=B1=C3=ADa de Jes=C3=BAs, known colloquially as La Compa=C3=B1=C3=ADa, is a Jesuit Cathedral in Quito, Ecua= dor.
https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/26/
Saint Quote:
The devil does not bring sinners to hell with their eyes open: he
first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. Before we fall
into sin, the enemy labours to blind us, that we may not see the evil
we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we
commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may
conceal our guilt in confession.
--St. Alphonsus Liguori
Bible Quote:
"Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the
promise is trustworthy.=C2 Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works." [Hebrews 10:23-24]
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A Prayer for Zeal
by St. Augustine
O Lord, our God, we believe in Thee, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As
far as I have been able, as much as Thou hast given me the power to do
so, I have sought for Thee. I have desired to see that in which I
believe; much have I striven and labored.
Lord, my God, my only hope, let me never tire of seeking Thee, but
make me seek Thy face with constant ardor. Give me the strength to
seek after Thee--Thou Who hast made me find Thee, Who hast given me
more and more the hope of finding Thee.
Thou seest my strength and my weakness; do Thou sustain the one and
heal the other; Thou seest my strength and my ignorance. Where Thou
hast opened to me, come make me welcome; where Thou hast opened to me,
come make me welcome; where Thou hast closed to me, open to my plea.
Give me to remember, understand, and love Thee.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)