- The Four Hundredth Anniversary -

On February 2, 2010, the four hundredth anniversary of the Church approved devotion to Our Lady of Good Success was observed with great ceremony in Quito, Ecuador.  The feast day of Our Lady of Good Success falls on a recognized holiday of the Catholic Church: the Feast of the Purification or Candlemas Day.

Why is the devotion so important for our times?

In the years between 1582 and 1634, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a cloistered Conceptionist sister in Quito, Ecuador named Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres. During these fifty-two years, Our Lady appeared to her asking to be known under the title of Our Lady of Good Success. She spoke to Mother Mariana about the future times that were to come for the Catholic Church particularly in the period "from mid-twentieth century onwards". Our Blessed Mother described for her the grave crisis that would take place in this era within the Catholic Church and also Society in general. She condemned most especially, on several occasions, the satanic work of Freemasonry which would result in devastating and destructive attacks against both the Catholic Church and Society.

The Apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana contained many prophecies relating to the Society, the Government and the Church in Ecuador, but also provided an overview of disasters in which the Universal Catholic Church and the world would be thrust into during the Twentieth Century and beyond. Over the last 400 years, most of these prophecies have come true which is proof of the authenticity of these visions. But there are others, which have yet, come to pass, in particular, that of "complete restoration of the Catholic Church".

Since the approval of the Bishop of Quito in 1610, all the bishops, who have governed this diocese, have always officially and publicly promoted the devotion. Now the question arises: Why, after 400 years, should the faithful of the Universal Catholic Church cultivate this devotion and petition the Blessed Mother under the invocation of Our Lady of Good Success?

Speaking through these prophecies, Our Lady of Good Success endeavored to tell the people who would be affected by the wrath of God to “clamor insistently” to shorten the time of this "divine punishment", promising that she would one day “effect the complete Restoration of the Catholic Church” in a marvelous way.

To promote this devotion, Our Lady ordered Mother Mariana on several occasions, to have a statue sculpted in her likeness until, on January 21, 1610, Our Lady said: 

«Now I ask and command that you have made [this statue] for the consolation and preservation of My Convent and for those faithful souls of that epoch during which there will be a great devotion to Me, for I am Queen of Heaven under many invocations. This devotion will be the lightning rod placed between Divine Justice and the prevaricating world to hold back God's Hand from unleashing the formidable punishment that this guilty earth deserves».

This Sacred Statue was completed in the course of a year and was consecrated by the Bishop of Quito, on February 2, 1611. This is the Sacred Statue of Our Lady of Good Success, miraculously completed by the three Archangels Gabriel, Raphael and Michael, and who still resides in the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Quito.

«This, then, will mark
the arrival of my hour,

when I, in a marvelous way,

will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan,

trampling him under my feet

and fettering him in the infernal abyss».

(Our Lady of Good Success, February 2, 1634)

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To learn more about the devotion to Our Lady of Good Success,

read the PDF file of the Special Edition of "Chiesa viva" No. 413.