History
Lily of
Quito
St. Mariana was born on October 31, 1618, in Quito
Saint Mariana de Paredes parish in Pico Rivera is the only parish in the United States dedicated to Saint Mariana.
St. Mariana de Paredes is a Catholic saint who lived in the 17th century. She is also known as Mariana de Jesús de Paredes y Flores. St. Mariana was born on October 31, 1618, in Quito, which is now part of Ecuador. She came from a noble and devout family.
St. Mariana dedicated herself to a life of prayer and penance from an early age. She became a Third Order Franciscan and chose to live a life of solitude, austerity, and deep prayer. Despite facing various trials and temptations, she remained committed to her spiritual journey.
St. Mariana is particularly remembered for her acts of charity and care for the sick and needy. She is said to have nursed many people back to health during times of plagues and epidemics, putting her own life at risk to help others.
St. Mariana died on May 26, 1645, at the age of 26. Her cause for canonization was introduced, and she was beatified by Pope Pius IX on November 9, 1853. St. Mariana de Paredes was canonized by Pope Pius XII on May 9, 1954. She is considered the first saint from Ecuador and is venerated as a patroness of Ecuador and of bodily ills.
Her feast day is celebrated on May 26 each year in the Catholic Church. St. Mariana is often depicted in religious art wearing the habit of the Franciscan Third Order and holding a cross and a skull, symbolizing her penitential and contemplative life.
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Mariana de Paredes
(October 31, 1618 – May 26, 1645)
The food which miraculously sustained her life, as in the case of St. Catherine and St. Rose of Lima, was, according to the sworn testimony of many witnesses, the Eucharistic Bread alone which she received every morning in Holy Communion. She possessed an ecstatic gift of prayer, predicted the future, saw distant events as if they were passing before her, read the secrets of hearts, cured diseases by a mere sign of the Cross, or by sprinkling the sufferer with holy water, and at least once she restored a dead person to life. The very day she died her sanctity was shown in a wonderful manner, for immediately after her death there sprang up from her blood and blossomed and bloomed a pure white lily, a prodigy which has given her the title of “The Lily of Quito”. – Source: Catholic Encyclopedia