Our Lady of Good Success
Our Lady of the Good Event (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso; Filipino: Ina ng Mabubuting Pangyayari), also called Our Lady of Good Events, is one of the titles of Blessed Virgin Mary. This title is applied to a number of images around the world, including several in Spain, one in Quito, Ecuador, and one in Parañaque City, Philippines. The image in Quito was the source of an apparition to Mother Mariana de Jésus Torres.
History
Spain
The title Virgen del Buen Suceso may have originated with Pope Paul V who, in 1607, gave this name to a Marian image he entrusted as patroness to the Obregonian Brothers. There is a representation of the Virgen de la Buena Suerte in the chapel of the Catholic Monarchs in Granada, Spain. The location suggests a connection with maritime travel and seafarers' safetyAnother image with the same name is located in Prats de Llusanès, Barcelona.[1]
Quito, Ecuador
In 1577 five Conceptionist sisters traveled from Spain to Quito, Ecuador to start the first convent. Mariana de Jésus Torres, one of the young nuns, is said to have seen the Blessed Mother. On February 2, 1599, as Mariana was praying, the Blessed Mother appeared to her and commanded a statue to be made to her likeness.
“First so that men in the future might realize how powerful I am in placating Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner who comes to me with a contrite heart. For I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love. When tribulations of spirit and sufferings of the body oppress them and they seem to be drowning in this bottomless sea let them gaze at my holy image and I will always be there ready to listen to their cries and soothe their pain. Tell them that they should always run to their Mother with confidence and love...”
Over the course of ten years Mother Mariana struggled with the issue of completing the statue. Many obstacles prevented its sculpting. One obstacle was a fear of idolatry on the part of the native people in Quito. Another was Mother Mariana’s personal fear of not being believed and thus putting the convent in jeopardy. In the year 1610, she asked the permission of the Bishop to create the statue. The sculpting of the statue of Our Lady of Good Success was given to Francisco del Castillo. Castillo was chosen as he was a talented sculptor and a devotee of the Blessed Mother. The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Good Success was blessed on February 2, 1611. On that day, she was placed above the seat of the Abbess chair at her own specific request as a sign to all that she was the one who governed and watched over the convent. Her official title being that of “Mary of the Good Event of the Purification” (Suceso in Spanish means “event” or “occurrence”.
Philippines
Feast
In Ecuador and Spain, the feast day of Our Lady of Good Success is celebrated on February 2 the day she appeared to Mother Mariana along with the archangels and St. Francis of Assisi (thus coinciding with the Feast of the Purification).
See also
References
Bibliography
- Pereira, Fr. Manuel Sousa, The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana Vol. I
- Pereira, Fr. Manuel Sousa, The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana Vol. II
- Our Lady of Good Success Novena and Prayer Booklet. Trans. Horvat, Marian Therese.
- Horvat, Marian Therese, Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for Our Times, vols. 1 and 2 (Tradition in Action: 1999, 2001).
- Cadena, Luis E. A Spanish Mystic in Quito: Sor Mariana de Jesus Torres.
- Montes, Carlos. La Sonrisa De La Señora” Historia de la Virgen del Buen Suceso
- Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres Quito Ecuador 1635 – “Our Lady of Good Fortune”
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