Talk on ‘lesser-known’ apparition Feb. 24

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

Many apparitions of Mary throughout the world have gained popular devotion among Catholics, yet other approved apparitions remain largely unknown.
One such Marian appearance is Nuestra Senora del Buen Suceso (or Our Lady of Good Success) in Ecuador, whose feast day is Feb. 2.
Dr. Marian T. Horvat, who has spent almost 40 years learning about the apparition, is trying to spread the word. She will give two free talks detailing this Mary’s prophecies and hopes for our time on Feb. 24 beginning at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 4465 North Causeway Blvd., Covington.

“I believe the greatest thing a Catholic can gain from this apparition and the prophecies is a greater understanding of our times,” Horvat said. “We can better bear suffering that we understand, and the prophecies help explain the crisis of our times and offer great hope for the future. Like Fatima, Our Lady promises a complete victory of her Immaculate Heart and the full restoration of our Holy Church despite the suffering of these days.”

How Our Lady helped her
Horvat, who has a degree in journalism and master’s and doctoral degrees in medieval history from the University of Kansas, first encountered Our Lady of Good Success on a layover in Ecuador from a pilgrimage with her mother to Brazil in the early 1980s.

They learned her story while touring Immaculate Conception Church in Quito, off the main plaza, where a 5-foot-9 statue of Mary, was displayed. It was carved by sculptor Francisco del Castillo but believed to have miraculous finishing touches by three archangels, with the help of St. Francis of Assisi in the year 1611.

“I was amazed at her beauty and the little bit of history I was able to understand,” Horvat said. “It was easy to believe it had been finished by the archangels, as we were told. I resolved on my return to Kansas to find out everything I could about this image.”

Shortly after her return, Horvat received a manuscript of Father Manuel Pereira, “The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana,” written in 1790, and she began to translate it “to make her better known.”

Through research, Horvat learned that Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres came from a noble yet impoverished and pious family related to King Philip II. At age 13 at the request of the king, she accompanied her Aunt Maria de Jesus Taboado from Spain to the New World to found a convent in Quito in 1566. Mother Mariana died at age 72 in 1635. Her body was found incorrupt when her tomb was opened in 1906.

The Blessed Mother first appeared to Mother Mariana in 1594 at her Conceptionist Royal Convent in Quito and prophesied a crisis in the church. She appeared eight times over 40 years, giving many messages including the abuse of the Blessed Sacrament, the corruption of priests, diminishing vocations and a general crisis in the church that would start shortly after the middle of the 20th century.

She correctly prophesied that Ecuador would become independent of Spain after a bloody war, which happened in 1809, and that in the 19th century, a good Catholic would lead the nation and be murdered. In fact, President Gabriel Garcia Moreno would consecrate Ecuador to the Sacred Heart and be massacred in 1875.

In 1998, Horvat published articles on Our Lady of Good Success for Catholic Family News, a conservative monthly paper. Its unexplainable popularity, she said, prompted her to amass the articles in a book, “Our Lady of Good Success Prophecies for Our Times,” a year later. It is now in its seventh edition, she said. 

Why Good Success is not known
Horvat believes the Quito apparition is less known than Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Fatima because “it was not for the conversion of a people. It was a prophecy meant to be a remedy for our times.”

Horvat said Mother Mariana was asked by God to become a victim soul for the 20th century, when the world would be suffering from so much immorality, blasphemies and heresies. She agreed but asked that her name be hidden. While in Mary’s arms, the child Jesus told her that she would remain unknown during her time, but her name and the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success would become known at the end of the 20th century. 

Horvat believes that since the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success were for our times – the 20th and 21st centuries – and remained hidden for hundreds of years until the prophecies would actually come true, the apparition would be verified.

While devotion to Our Lady of Good Success has had the approval of every bishop since 1611, it wasn’t until 1991 that Our Lady of Good Success was honored with a papal crowning, and the Immaculate Conception Church was named an official Marian sanctuary. Mother Mariana’s cause for canonization was opened in 1985, and she was declared Venerable after careful investigation, Horvat confirmed.
Horvat’s decades-long association with Our Lady of Good Success has brought her closer to Mary.

“It has given me greater confidence in her mediation before the divine throne, for every request I bring to her, she resolves or gives an answer,” Horvat said. “Even if it takes years – once it was only after 18 years of daily prayer to her – that an answer came, but then it was in an unexpected and grander way than I could have ever imagined.” 

Horvat is a writer, lecturer and president of the nonprofit Tradition in Action that strives for the restoration of Christian civilization. For more on Our Lady of Good success, visit
www.ourladyofgoodsuccess.com/pages/history.

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