Garcia Moreno

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Gabriel García Moreno

Taken from the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia

Ecuadorean patriot and statesman; b. at Guayaquil, 24 December, 1821; assassinated at Quito, 6 August, 1875.

His father, Gabriel García Gomez, a native of Villaverde, in Old Castile, had been engaged in commerce at Callao before removing to Guayaquil, where he married Dona Mercedes Moreno, the mother of the future Ecuadorean martyr president. Gabriel García Gomez died while his son was still young, and the boy's education was left to the care of his mother, who appears to have been a woman of unusual ability for her task; she was, moreover, fortunate in securing as her son's tutor Fray José Betancourt, the famous Mercedarian, under whose tuition young García Moreno made rapid progress. A great part of his father's fortune having been lost, it was not without some considerable sacrifices that the youth was able to attend the university course at Quito. These material obstacles once overcome, he passed brilliantly through the schools, distancing all his contemporaries, and on 26 October, 1844, received his degree in the faculty of law (Doctor en Jurisprudencia) from the University of Quito.

In less than a year after his graduation young García Moreno had begun to take an active part in Ecuadorean politics, joining in the revolutionary movement which eventually replaced the Flores administration by that of Roca (1846). He soon distinguished himself as a political satirist by contributions to "El Zurriago", but what more truly presaged the achievements of his riper life was his good and useful work as a member of the municipal council of Quito. At the same time he was studying legal practice, and on 30 March, 1848, was admitted advocate. Immediately after this the deposed Flores, supported by the Spanish government, made an attempt to regain the presidency of Ecuador; García Moreno unhesitatingly came forward in support of the Roca administration, and when that administration fell, in 1849, he entered upon his first period of exile.

After some months spent in Europe he returned to his native republic in the employ of a mercantile concern, and it was then that he took the first decisive step which marked him conspicuously for the enmity of the anti-Catholics, or, as they preferred to call themselves, the Liberals. At Panama he had fallen in with a party of Jesuits who had been expelled from the Republic of New Granada and wished to find asylum in Ecuador. García Moreno constituted himself the protector of these religious, and they sailed with him for Guayaquil; but on the same vessel that carried the Jesuits and their champion, an envoy from New Granada also took passage for the express purpose of bringing diplomatic influence to bear with the dictator, Diego Noboa, to secure their exclusion from Ecuadorean territory.

No sooner had the vessel entered the harbour of Guayaquil than García Moreno, slipping into a shore boat, succeeded in landing some time before the New Granadan envoy; the necessary permission was acquired from the Ecuadorean government, and the Jesuits obtained a foothold in that country. How soon the report of this exploit spread among the anti-Catholics of South America was evidenced by the fact that within a year Jacobo Sánchez, a New Granadan, had attacked García Moreno in the pamphlet "Don Felix Frias en Paris y los Jesuitas en el Ecuador", to which García Moreno's reply was an able "Defensa de los Jesuitas".

In 1853 he began to publish "La Nación", a periodical which, according to its prospectus, was intended to combat the then existing tendency of the government to exploit the masses for the material benefit of those who happened to be in power. At the same time García Moreno's programme aimed distinctly and professedly to defend the religion of the people. He was already known as a friend of the Jesuits; he now assumed the role of friend of the common people, to which he adhered sincerely and consistently to the day of his death. The Urbina faction, then in power, were quick to recognize the importance of "La Nación", which was suppressed before the appearance of its third number, and its proprietor was exiled, for the second time.

Having been, meanwhile, elected senator by his native province of Guayaquil, he was prevented from taking his seat, on the ground that he had returned to Quito without a passport. After a sojourn at Paita, García Moreno once more visited Europe. He was now thirty-three years of age, and his experience of political life in Ecuador had deeply convinced him of his people's need of enlightenment. It was undoubtedly with this conviction as his guide and incentive that he spent a year or more in Paris, foregoing every form of pleasure, a severe, indefatigable student not only of political science, but also of the higher mathematics, of chemistry, and of the French public school system.

On his return home, under a general amnesty in 1850, he became rector of the central University of Quito; a position of which he availed himself to commence lectures of his own in physical science. Next year he was active in the senate in opposition to the Masonic party, which had gained control of the government, while at the same time he persistently and forcibly, though unsuccessfully, struggled for the passage of a law establishing a system of public education modelled on that of France. In 1858 he once more established a paper, "La Union Naciónal", which became obnoxious to the government by its fearless exposure of corruption and its opposition to the arbitrary employment of authority; and once more a political crisis ensued.

García Moreno was on principle an advocate of orderly processes of government, and that his professions in this regard were sincere his subsequent career fairly demonstrated, but at this juncture he was obliged to realize that his country was in the grip of a corrupt oligarchy, bent upon the suppression of the Church to which the whole mass of his fellow countrymen were devoted, and disposed to keep the masses in ignorance so as to sway them the more easily to its own ends. He had, years before, attacked "the revolutionary industry", a phrase probably first used by him, in the prospectus of "La Nación"; it now became necessary for him to descend to revolutionary methods.

Besides, the little Republic of Ecuador was at this time menaced by its more powerful neighbour on the south, Peru. García Moreno, if he was sure of opposition at the hands of the soi-disant Liberals, was also, by this time, recognized by the masses as a leader loyal to both their common Faith and their common country, and thus he was able to organize the revolution which made him head of a provisional government established at Quito. The republic was now divided, General Franco being at the head of a rival government established at Guayaquil.

In vain did García Moreno offer to share his authority with his rival for the sake of national unity. As a defensive measure against the threat of Peruvian invasion, García Moreno entered into negotiations with the French envoy with a view to securing the protection of France, a political mistake of which his enemies knew how to avail themselves to the utmost. He was now obliged to assume the character of a military leader, for which he possessed at least the qualifications of personal courage and decisive quickness of resolution. While García Moreno inflicted one defeat after another upon the partisans of Franco, the latter, as representing Ecuador, had concluded with Peru the treaty of Mapasingue. The people of Ecuador rose in indignation at the concessions made in this treaty, and Franco, even his own followers being alienated, was defeated at Babahoya (7 August, 1860) and again at Salado River, where he was driven to take refuge on a Peruvian vessel.

When his adversary had been forcibly driven from the country, García Moreno showed his magnanimity in the proclamation in which he sought to heal as quickly as possible the scars of this civil war: "The republic should regard itself as one family; the old demarcations of districts must be so obliterated as to render sectional ambitions impossible". In the reorganization of the Constituent Assembly, which was summoned to meet in January, 1861, he insisted that the suffrage should not be territorial, but "direct and universal, under the necessary guarantees of intelligence and morality, and the number of representatives should correspond (proportionally) to that of the electors represented". The Convention, which met on 10 January, elected García Moreno president; he delivered his inaugural address on the 2d of April following. Then began that series of reforms among which were the restitution of the rights of the Church and a radical reconstruction of the fiscal system. In the immediate present he had to deal with the machinations of his old adversary Urbina, who, from his retirement in Peru, kept up incessant intrigues with the opposition at home, and still more with the governments of neighbouring republics. García Moreno soon came to a sensible and honourable understanding with the Peruvian government.

A violation of Ecuadorean territory by New Granada, though it led to a hostile collision in which García Moreno himself took part, had no serious consequences until the Arboledo administration gave place to that of General Mosquera, whose ambition it was to make New Granada the nucleus of a great "Colombian Confederation", in which Ecuador was to be included. Urbina was not above writing encouraging letters to the New Granadan or Colombian dictator who was scheming against the independence of Ecuador. An invitation to García Moreno to confer with Mosquera elicited a very plain intimation that, so far as the national obliteration of Ecuador was concerned, there was nothing to confer about. But in the meantime the Republic of Ecuador had ratified a concordat with Pope Pius IX (1862), and the discontent of the Regalista party at home with the provisions of that instrument gave Mosquera an excellent pretext for encroaching upon his neighbour's rights.

The Regalistas were, without knowing it, a kind of Erastians, who claimed the appointment to ecclesiastical benefices as an inalienable right of the civil power. The President of Ecuador was charged with "casting Colombia, manacled, at the feet of Rome"; Urbina issued "manifestos" from Peru in the sense of "South America for the South Americans"; while the proclamation of President Mosquera recited, with others which seem to have been introduced merely for the sake of appearances, his three really significant grounds of complaint against García Moreno: that the latter had ratified the concordat; that he maintained a representative of the Holy See at Quito; that he had brought Jesuits into Ecuador. It may be remarked here, in passing, that if Mosquera had added to this catalogue of offences those of insisting upon free primary education for the masses, upon strict auditing of the public accounts, and a considerable bona fide outlay upon roads and other public utilities, his proclamation might have served adequately as the indictment upon which García Moreno was condemned and eventually put to death by those whom Pius IX ironically called "the valiant sectaries".

Mosquera was determined to have war, and all the efforts of the Ecuadorean government were of no avail to prevent it. At the battle of Cuaspud all but two battalions of the forces of Ecuador fled ignominiously. It is a matter for wonder, considering the grounds upon which he had declared war, that Mosquera, in the Peace of Pinsaquí, which followed this victory, should have left the Concordat of 1862, the delegate Apostolic, and the Jesuits just as they were. In March,1863, García Moreno tendered his resignation to the National Assembly, who insisted upon his remaining in office until the expiration of his term. Nevertheless he had to face, during the next two years, repeated seditions and filibustering raids. After sparing the lives of the leaders in one of these movements, though they had by all law and custom incurred the penalty of death, he was severely criticized for ordering the execution of another such when it had become evident that an example was necessary for the peace of the republic. In a naval battle at Jambelí (27 June, 1865) at which García Moreno was personally present, the defeat of the Urbina forces was complete, and tranquillity reigned until the presidential term expired on the 27th of the following August.

In the following year began what may be considered as a connected series of attempts which terminated, nine years later, in the assassination of García Moreno. The dispute between Spain and Peru over the Chinchas Islands had led to a war in which, following García Moreno's advice, his successor Jeronimo Carrión had cast in the lot of Ecuador with that of the sister republic and its then ally, Chile. The ex-president was sent as minister plenipotentiary to Chile, with a commission to transact business with President Prado of Peru on his way. On his arrival at Lima an attempt was made to assassinate him, but it ended in the death of his assailant. His diplomatic mission resulted excellently for the friendly relations between Ecuador and its neighbours; the sojourn at Santiago also inspired García Moreno with a high admiration for Chile, and he even made up his mind to attempt a change of the Ecuadorean constitution so as to make it more like that of Chile, a project which he carried into effect in the National Convention of 1869. On his return to Ecuador he found himself a second time in the uncongenial position of leader of a revolution. To anticipate a plot which the Liberals, led by one of Urbina's relations, were known to be forming, the conservatives of Ecuador had risen, declared Carrión deposed, and made García Moreno head of the provisional government. The justice of the grounds on which this extreme action was taken was established by the attempt of Veintemilla, at Guayaquil, only two months later, in March, 1869.

Having been duly confirmed as president ad interim by the National Convention of May, 1869, García Moreno resumed his work for the enlightenment, as well as the religious well-being, of his people. It was in these last years of his life that he did so much for the teaching of physical sciences in the university by introducing there the German Fathers of the Society of Jesus. The medical schools and hospitals of the capital benefited vastly by his intelligent and zealous efforts. In September, 1870, the troops of Victor Emmanuel occupied Rome; and on 18 January, 1871, García Moreno, alone of all the rulers of the world, addressed a protest to the King of Italy on the spoliation of the Holy See. The pope marked his appreciation of this outburst of loyalty by conferring on the President of Ecuador the decoration of the First Class of the Order of Pius IX, with a Brief of commendation dated, 27 March, 1871. It was, on the other hand, notorious that certain lodges had formally decreed the death of García Moreno, who, in a letter to the pope, used about this time the following almost prophetic words: "What riches for me, Most Holy Father, to be hated and calumniated for my love for our Divine Redeemer! What happiness if your benediction should obtain for me from Heaven the grace of shedding my blood for Him, who being God, was willing to shed His blood for us upon the Cross!" The object of numberless plots against his life, García Moreno pursued his way with unruffled confidence in the future — his own and his country's. "The enemies of God and the Church can kill me", he once said, "but God does not die" (Dios no muere).

He had been re-elected president, and would soon have entered upon another term of office, when, towards the end of July, 1875, the police of Quito were apprised that a party of assassins had begun to dog García Moreno's footsteps. When, however, the chief of police warned the intended victim, the latter so discouraged all attempts to hedge him about with precautions, as to almost excuse the carelessness of his official guardians. It came out in evidence that within the fortnight preceding the finally successful attempt, the same assassins had at least twice been foiled by the president's failing to appear on occasions when he had been expected. Finally, on the evening of 6 August, the assassins found their prey unprotected, leaving the house of some very dear friends; they followed him until he had reached the Treasury, and there Faustino Rayo, the leader of the band, suddenly attacked him with a machete, inflicting six or seven wounds, while the other three assisted in the work with their revolvers. On hearing of the death of García Moreno, Pope Pius IX ordered a solemn Mass of Requiem to be celebrated in the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. The same sovereign pontiff erected to his memory, in the Collegio Pio-Latino, at Rome, a monument on which García Moreno is designated:

Religionis integerrimus custos

Auctor studiorum optimorum

Obsequentissimus in Petri sedem

Justitiae cultor; scelerum vindex.

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The Angelus - March 2013

Garcia Moreno to the Altars!

by Fr. Paul Kimball

The president-martyr of Ecuador, Gabriel Garcia Moreno, who was assassinated by order of Freemasonry for being a model Catholic statesman, ought to be raised to the altars for the following reasons:


Papal Promoters

Such was the explicit desire of Pope St. Pius X. It was November 1, 1907, when Monsignor Manuel Maria Polit was in Rome and received episcopal consecration. In an audience with his Holiness Pope Pius X, he heard these words from his lips:

“You ought to introduce Garcia Moreno’s cause of beatification. Take advantage of my Pontificate. You Ecuadorians will never find a Pope like me, so desirous of placing your Hero on the altars, nor a College of Cardinals like the present one, so eager to contribute to the glorification of such an exalted person.”

“Oh, Holy Father,” the newly-consecrated bishop answered, “the situation in Ecuador, as Your Holiness well knows, is horrifying. The government would never permit the least step in this regard. Unfortunately, in our country antichristian political circumstances prevail to such a degree that it would be a dangerous temerity to initiate this so praiseworthy cause. For now, it only remains for us to wait in patience and to trust in God for a favorable, or a perhaps less adverse, future time for our immortal hero.”

His Holiness listened to these words with sorrow, and went on to treat of other matters.1


Distinguished by the Spirit of Justice

Venerable Pope Pius IX spoke of him as a martyr worthy of public honor by the Church:

“In the midst of all this, the Republic of Ecuador was miraculously distinguished by the spirit of justice and the unshakeable faith of its President, who showed himself ever the submissive son of the Church, full of devotion for the Holy See and of zeal to maintain religion and piety throughout his nation. And now the impious, in their blind fury, look upon, as an insult to their pretended modern civilization, the existence of a Government, which, while concerning itself with the material well-being of the people, strives at the same time to assure its moral and spiritual progress. Then, in the councils of darkness organized by the sects, these villains decreed the murder of the illustrious President. He fell under the steel of an assassin, as a victim to his faith and Christian charity” (Address of Pope Pius IX to the pilgrims of Laval on September 20, 1875).

Pope Pius IX did not limit himself to words. A few days later he had a magnificent funeral service celebrated for the soul of Garcia Moreno in the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere, as Pontiffs do when God has taken away one of the most eminent children of the Church; and when certain Italian Catholics determined to erect a statue in his honor, Pius IX largely contributed to it, and placed it in the South American College in Rome. On the four sides of this monument is the following inscription:

“To the faithful guardian of Religion, patron of the sciences, most devoted to the Holy See, upholder of justice, avenger of crime. Gabriel Garcia Moreno, President of the Republic of Ecuador, was treacherously assassinated by the hand of the wicked on August 6, 1875. Good men of the whole world celebrated his heroic virtues, his glorious death for the faith, and wept over the crime which took him from the world. The Sovereign Pontiff Pope Pius IX, by his munificence and by the gifts of a great number of Catholics, has raised this monument to the courageous defender of the Church and society.”2

Pope Pius XII called him a martyr in 1948:

“In 1948, the former Cardinal, Eugenio Pacelli, was the Supreme Pontiff, Pius XII, who, when responding to the introductory address of the Ecuadorian Ambassador, Don Carlos Manuel Larrea, recalled President Garcia Moreno and honored him with these epithets: ‘Great statesman, faithful son of the Church and martyr for his faith.’ This was on eighteenth of July of the aforementioned year.”3

In 1954, when speaking with Cardinal Dacosta, Archbishop of Florence, he said to him,

“One of the causes of canonization that I would most willingly like to see in Rome is that of Garcia Moreno.”4

Beatification Started

His cause of beatification was begun in Quito by decree of Archbishop Carlos Maria de la Torre in the following words:

“Serious and prudent men well versed in Sacred Theology, and who have studied with special care and diligence, inside and outside of the Republic, the death of Lord Doctor Don Gabriel Garcia Moreno and the cause which motivated it, believe that they have discovered in these the essential marks and characteristics of a true martyrdom.

“It seems to them that the deaths of Saint Canute, Saint Wenceslaus, Saint Thomas of Canterbury, and of the English Catholics sacrificed during the fateful days of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, maintain perfect consonance and analogy to the death of the Ecuadorian President; and that, if the infallible decision of the Church has decorated them with the aureola of martyrdom, she could well encircle the brow of this man with it also.

“Such an assessment is far from negligible indeed, as is the interest that not only simple and devout faithful but even conspicuous members of the College of Cardinals have shown so that, within the canonical framework, everything possible would be done for the extremely upright President to be placed upon the altars, who, notwithstanding the incredulity and apostasy of his century, gloried in his Faith and his unwavering adherence to the Church and to the Vicar of Christ, in his innermost conviction, expressed by constant and superhuman efforts, that only the nation which recognizes Christ’s sovereignty in its customs, its laws and its constitution, will be happy. They have moved us to take the first steps toward the clarification of such an important point.

“How much glory we would give to God, with what new splendor the Church would be clothed, and what unfading honor would redound to our country, if with infallible lips the Roman Pontiff would declare that Garcia Moreno was and ought to be called ‘a martyr of Christ!’5

“…Therefore, after invoking the light of the Holy Ghost, having heard the views of our Fiscal Promoter; fearful of incurring Divine indignation, if perchance we put forward some resistance to the designs which perhaps God may have upon the privileged soul of whom Pius IX said that ‘he had fallen victim of his faith and of his Christian charity,’ and Leo XIII that ‘he surrendered his life for the Church at the hands of the wicked,’ and the Congress of 1875, that ‘he shed his blood for the holy cause of religion, morality and order, peace and progress,’ in compliance with that which has been ordained by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the document cited above: we deem it beneficial to constitute the Historical Commission which will have for its end to gather all the historical documents relating to the death and the cause that motivated it, or the long standing fame of martyrdom of Dr. Gabriel Garcia Moreno, who died riddled with gun wounds in the Plaza of Independence of Quito, the first Friday, August 6, 1875. This commission will be composed of the Very Reverend Juan de Dios Navas, Magisterial Canon of our Metropolitan church and archivist of our Ecclesiastical Curia; of Reverend Father Joel Monroy, Provincial of the Order of Ransom; and of Reverend Father Jose Le Gohuir of the Company of Jesus.

“Given in Quito, on the 20th of December of 1939. Carlos Maria, Archbishop of Quito. Angel Humberto Jacome, Secretary.”6

Support for Canonization

In Rome the renowned theologian, Cardinal Louis Billot (+1931), strongly supported his canonization:

“[Bishop Carlos Maria de la Torre’s] allocution about the great man and renowned martyr, who was Garcia Moreno, has awakened in my soul such a lively joy that I cannot find words to express it. I have read it from beginning to end. Oh, what a beautiful figure, truly worthy of being placed on the altars; worthy of being proposed as an example to our modern Catholics who, unfortunately, let themselves be more and more corrupted every day by the deadly principles of Liberalism! I fervently pray that the political conditions of Ecuador will finally permit his cause to be initiated in the Sacred Congregation of Rites. How happy I would judge myself to be if I were the Postulator!”7

The Ecuadorian bishops likewise supported his canonization.

His Excellency Bishop Heredia, Bishop of Guayaquil, has said,

“I have always maintained my opinion that God is asking two equally obligatory things of us: firstly, the construction of the National Basilica, so that national and perpetual worship may be given there; and secondly, the glorification, as far as possible on our part, of the Martyr of God and of country amongst us.”8

The Bishop of Riobamba, Monsignor Andres Machado, said,

“The day will come when Garcia Moreno will be exalted on the altars.”9

The Archbishop of Quito, Monsignor Polit on January 22, 1922, referred to

“the Ecuadorian Hero whom I firmly hope will rise one day to the altars as a martyr of Jesus Christ.”10

The words of His Excellency Carlos Maria de la Torre, Bishop of Riobamba [who became the Cardinal Archbishop of Quito]:

“The moral greatness of Garcia Moreno had soared to such a height that without the glorious martyrdom that was its worthy conclusion, God’s work would have been unfinished and imperfect…”11

The bishops of France added their support to Garcia Moreno’s canonization.

When His Grace, Archbishop Manuel Maria Polit of Quito returned to Guayaquil from a three-month stay in Europe, he gave the following discourse on August sixth, the anniversary of the death of Garcia Moreno:

“In Paris, while conversing with some eminent bishops, I said to them that one of the objectives of my trip consisted in delivering the Informative Processes of our Servants of God, Reverend Father Jose Maria Yerovi and [Saint] Brother Miguel Febres Cordero. This statement not having been well received, those French prelates opposed me with these words: ‘Put these Causes aside for now, and undertake the Cause of Beatification of Garcia Moreno. Bishops and religious of eminent virtue abound on the altars; whereas the exaltation of someone like Garcia Moreno would be the first and sensational case of a president of a republic haloed with such honors. Commission the Ecuadorians to collect all the documents that exist in your country regarding the death of Garcia Moreno, and all the rest will be done by the French Episcopate.”12

Fr. Mateo Crawley, the founder of the home enthronement of the Sacred Heart, longed for his canonization.

"Even more, I dare say that it was Garcia Moreno who, with his hands anointed with his glorious blood, put the precious Labarum13 into my hands. Oh! And how happy I would consider myself to be if one day it were given to me to contribute in some way to his exaltation on the altars, in order to pay for the gift that he gave me, which gave a definitive direction to my vocation of social apostolate! If then, one day, the Church renders such glory to the President-martyr, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts should attain that Rome would assign him to us as Patron of the Enthronement Crusade, since I made my debut in the shadow of his standard.”14

Miracles through His Intercession

At the end of November 1943, the historic oleograph of the Heart of Jesus of Garcia Moreno was exposed in the Cathedral of Loja, receiving the homage of the crowds, when the Franciscan Brother Diego Navarrete joined them and raised the following prayer:

“O Garcia Moreno, you who consecrated Ecuador to the Heart of Jesus before this picture, work a miracle, make me recover the use of my ears. I was given no hope in Quito, a cold climate; I was given no hope in Guayaquil, a hot climate; I was given no hope in Loja, a moderate climate. I want to be a missionary in Zamora, to teach the catechism to the Jivaros.15 But how can I do it being deaf? You, who consecrated Ecuador to the Heart of Jesus before this picture, make me hear.”

A few minutes passed; he paid attention and related that he heard everything: the bell that rings, the people who pray. He exclaimed, “Now I can go to Zamora.”

Some eight years later he spoke with me in Gualaceo and said to me, “I was unable to hear for six months. I can swear that I was given no hope in Quito, in Guayaquil, and in Loja. The doctors who attended me can swear that they gave me no hope.”

Here is a case that can be considered a first class miracle; an oath was signed by Brother Navarrete and by each one of these three doctors.… I am confirmed in the persuasion that the Cause did not fail for lack of first class miracles.16


Worldwide Importance

In war-torn post World War II Belgium, Garcia Moreno is compared to Charlemagne and St. Louis of France in a booklet explaining his worldwide modern importance:

“Garcia Moreno was far from being the passing of a meteor, without leaving a trail behind itself. Not to present his personality in all its glory would be not to give God the glory of His works, and to this great man the immortality which is due to him even on earth. It would be, moreover, to deprive the human race of an enormous help, since the life of Garcia Moreno presents a providential lesson to ward off the cataclysm which he alone undertook to remedy.

“What more beautiful example could be offered to our rulers, faced with almost superhuman difficulties which characterize these post-war years?

“In fact, the clearing of a heap of ruins, the bringing of prosperity, and above all the rectifying of the standards now so wrong, and the leading of nations according to the principles of the Christian life under the gaze of God and of His Church, did he not achieve all this in a splendid manner in a few years, within the sphere in which he had to act?” (Imprimatur, Mechelen, the eleventh day of November 1944, Jose Carton de Wiart, Vicar General).17

Our Lady of Good Success praised Garcia Moreno as a model Catholic statesman and a martyr 276 years before his heroic death for the faith.

“On January 16, 1599, Our Lady of Good Success appeared to Venerable Mother Mariana of Jesus Torres, Abbess of the Royal Convent of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, in Quito, Ecuador. Our Lady spoke to Mother Mariana these prophetic words:

‘In the nineteenth century a truly Christian president will come, a man of character, to whom our Lord God will give the palm of martyrdom in the plaza on which this convent is located. He will consecrate the Republic of Ecuador to the Divine Heart of my beloved Son and this consecration will sustain the Catholic religion in the subsequent years, which will be ill-fated for the Church. In these years, in which Masonry, that accursed sect, will seize control of the civil government, there will come a cruel persecution of all the religious communities and it will rage against mine.’ ”18

“This great Catholic statesman can only be Gabriel Garcia Moreno. He was assassinated in the square in front of the Cathedral and also the convent of Mother Mariana. As President of Ecuador, he had officially consecrated his country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by a legislative decree on October 8, 1873. Our Lady’s prophecies were fulfilled to the letter! On August 6, 1875, the first Friday of the month, Garcia Moreno was assassinated. Before he died, he was carried into the Cathedral and laid at the feet of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, where he received the last sacraments and forgave his assassin.”19

Prayer for the Canonization (With Ecclesiastical Approval)

O Sacred Heart of Jesus! Remember the consecration that President Gabriel Garcia Moreno made to Thee of his Republic; of the enthronement of Thy sacred image in his presidential home; and of his blood, shed to seal his unshakeable adherence to Thee and to Thy vicar, the Pope, and grant us the canonical glorification of such an exemplary ruler, that men powerful in deeds and words may rise up for the cause of religion and of country, and finally the particular grace which we ask of Thee, in accord with Thy good pleasure. Amen. (Ask for a particular grace and end with a Glory Be.)20



1 Fr. Severo Gomezjurado, S.J., Vida de Garcia Moreno, Vol. 11, p. 268, and La Consegracion, pp. 278-279.
2 Augustine Berthe, C.SS.R., Garcia Moreno (Dolorosa Press, 2006), p. 334.
3 Gomezjurado, Vida de Garcia Moreno, Vol. 12, p. 406.
4 Ibid., p. 407.
5 Ibid., p. 348, where footnote 25 reads in these terms: “It was Bishop Ordonez, an eyewitness, who told me of the energetic expression and words of the Metropolitan, who always took pride in valiantly promoting the beatification of Garcia Moreno without taking notice of the Masons.”
6 Gomezjurado, La Consagracion, pp. 341-344.
7 Boletin Eclesiastico de la Archidiocesis de Quito (1921), p. 508. Gomezjurado, Is Garcia Moreno a Martyr? [Spanish], p. 151. Vida, Vol. 11, p. 385, and La Consecracion, p. 319.
8 Gomezjurado, Vida, Vol. 11, p. 308.
9 Ibid., p. 308.
10 Ibid., p. 376.
11 Ibid., p. 385.
12 Ibid., Vol. 12, pp. 181-182.
13 I.e. the picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus used by Garcia Moreno for the consecration of Ecuador that inspired Father Mateo to begin spreading the practice of the Home Enthronement of Families to the Sacred Heart.
14 Gomezjurado, Vida, Vol. 11, p. 129.
15 The Jivaros are South American Indians of eastern Ecuador and northeast Peru.
16 Gomezjurado, Vida, Vol. 13, pp. 408-409.
17 Ibid., Vol. 12, p. 239.
18 Luis E. Cadena y Aleida, Mensaje Profético de la Sierva de Dios, Sor Mariana Francisca de Jesus Torres y Berriochoa (Quito: Jesus de la Misericordia, 1985), pp. 68-69.
19 Berthe, Garcia Moreno, p. i.
20 Gomezjurado, Vida, Vol. 13, p. 417. This prayer has been approved not only by the bishops of Ecuador, but moreover by the bishops of Pasto in Columbia, of Santiago in Chile, of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and by another in Argentina through the mediation of Fr. Hervé Le Lay. It has been translated into Portuguese and English. More than 100,000 holy cards of Garcia Moreno with these prayers were distributed within forty years.