In 1599, Our Lady of Good Success appeared to a Conceptionist sister, who had traveled from Spain to Quito, Ecuador to help establish a convent there. Favored with many singular gifts from heaven, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres was given to know many future events, especially the grievous situation of the Church in the 20th Century.
Our Lady told her that in our lamentable times, heresies would abound, the corruption of manners and customs would be almost complete, and the light of the Faith nearly extinguished. But Our Lady promised Her intercession at the very moment "when the evil will appear triumphant and when the authority abuses my power." This would "mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and accursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss."
The most important of the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success took place near the end of Mother Mariana’s life. The early morning of February 2, 1634, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, found Mother Mariana praying before the Blessed Sacrament, beseeching Our Lord that she might be united with Him and be engulfed in that love which belongs to the Blessed.
As she finished this prayer, she saw the sanctuary light extinguish itself, leaving the altar completely dark. Our Lady appeared to tell her that Our Lord had heard her clamors and would end her earthly exile in less than a year: “Prepare your soul so that, increasingly purified, it might enter into the fullness of the joy of Our Lord. Oh! if mortals, and in particular religious souls, could know what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live! Nor would they spare themselves any sacrifice in order to possess Him!”
The Blessed Virgin Mary then explained the five meanings of the Tabernacle light that had been extinguished before Mother Mariana’s eyes:
“The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and the virtues will suffer an unspeakably cruel and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings, and those who sacrifice themselves for Church and Country will be counted as martyrs.”
“In order to free men 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, then, will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
These chosen souls, who will restore the health of the Church, are described in detail as the apostles of the latter times, by St. Louis Marie de Montfort in his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“There will be almost no virgin souls in the world,” Our Lady told her. The delicate flower of virginity would be threatened by complete annihilation. However, She promised that there would always be some good souls in cloisters where it might take root, grow and live like a shield to deflect Divine Wrath. “Without virginity,” She said, “it would be necessary for fire from Heaven to fall upon these lands to purify them.”
“During these unfortunate times,” Our Lady foretold, “evil will assault childhood innocence. In this way, vocations to the priesthood will be lost, which will be a true calamity.”
Again Our Lady promised that during this time there would still be religious communities who will sustain the Church and holy ministers of the altar—hidden and beautiful souls, who will labor with valor and disinterested zeal for the salvation of souls. “Against them,” She warned, “the impious will rage a cruel war, letting fall on them vituperations, calumnies and vexations in order to impede the fulfillment of their ministry. But they, like firm columns, will remain unswerving and will confront everything with the spirit of humility and sacrifice with which they will be vested, by virtue of the infinite merits of My Most Holy Son, Who will love them in the innermost fibers of His Most Holy and Tender Heart.”
During this time, Our Lady foretold, “the secular clergy will be far removed from its ideal, because the priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the Divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain.”
“How the Church will suffer on that occasion—the dark night of the lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, discernment and prudence. Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger.”
Our Lady continued to explain the fourth reason for the extinguishing of the Tabernacle light: “Therefore, pray insistently without tiring and weep with bitter tears in the secrecy of your heart. Implore our Celestial Father that, for the love of the Eucharistic Heart of My Most Holy Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity… He might take pity on His ministers and bring to an end those ominous times, and send to the Church the Prelate who will restore the spirit of Her priests.”
“My Most Holy Son and I will love this favored Son with a love of predilection, and We will gift Him with a rare capacity, humility of heart, docility to Divine inspiration, the strength to defend the rights of the Church, and a tender and compassionate heart, so that, like another Christ, He will assist the great and small, without despising the more unfortunate souls who ask Him for light and counsel in their doubts and hardships. Into His hands the scales of the Sanctuary will be placed, so that everything is weighed with due measure and God will be glorified.”
Our Lady continued, “The lukewarmness of all the souls consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will delay the coming of this Prelate and Father. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed Devil taking possession of this land, where he will achieve his victories by means of a foreign and faithless people, so numerous that, like a black cloud, it will obscure the pure heavens of the then Republic consecrated to the Sacred Heart of My Divine Son.”
“With these people, all the vices will enter, which will attract in their turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to Me.”
“In order to dissipate this black cloud which prevents the Church from enjoying the clear day of liberty, there will be a formidable and frightful war, which will see the bloodshed of countrymen and foreigners, of secular and regular priests, and of religious. That night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph.”
“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. Thus the Church and Country will finally be free of his cruel tyranny.”
“Alas! My chosen daughter! If it were given to you to live in that tenebrous era, you would die of sorrow to see all that I have revealed to you here take place. But My Most Holy Son and I have such a great love for this land, Our legacy, that We desire even now the application of your sacrifices and prayers to shorten the duration of such a terrible catastrophe!”
Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the evils she saw and the countless souls that would be condemned during these times, Mother Mariana fell unconscious. There the Sisters found her, as if dead, except for the violent beating of her heart. All of the doctor’s efforts to restore her to consciousness proved useless. In fact he said, humanly speaking, her life should have ended from the shock she had received.
The Sisters surrounded her, beseeching Heaven to leave them their great treasure, the last of the Founding Mothers, “the mainstay of observance, the column of the house.” Two days later, Mother Mariana opened her eyes, encouraged her Sisters to continue to follow the Rule, and consoled them that she would remain with them yet a little longer.