Mary Anne de Paredes

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Saint Mary Anne of Jesus de Paredes
Virgin
Born	October 31, 1618, Quito, Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Ecuador)
Died	May 26, 1645, Quito, Ecuador
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	November 10, 1853, Rome by Pope Pius IX
Canonized	1950, Rome by Pope Pius XII
Feast	May 26
Attributes	Virgin
Patronage	Americas; bodily ills; loss of parents; people rejected by religious orders; sick people; sickness
Saints Portal

Saint Mary Anne de Paredes or Saint Mariana de Jesus de Paredes was born in the city of Quito, in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Ecuador), on October 31, 1618, and died there on May 26, 1645. Born of aristocratic parents on both sides of her family, her father was Don Girolamo Flores Zenel de Paredes, a nobleman of Toledo, Spain, and her mother was Doña Mariana Cranobles de Xaramilo, a descendant of one of the best Spanish families. Mary Anne was the youngest of eight children, and it is claimed her birth was accompanied by most unusual phenomena in the heavens, clearly connected with the child and juridically attested at the time of the process of her beatification. Orphaned at a very young age, she was raised by her older sister and her husband.

Church testimony states that, almost from infancy, she gave signs of an extraordinary attraction to prayer and mortification, of love of God and devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and was, on a number of occasions, miraculously preserved from death. At the age of ten, she made the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and desired to convey the light of faith to less fortunate people, and to later enter a monastery as a Dominican nun. But when neither of these pious desires came to pass, she made for herself a hermitage in in home of her sister where, apart from all worldly cares and closely united to God, she gave herself up to the practice of unheard of corporal austerities. It is reported that the fast which she kept was so strict that she took scarcely an ounce of dry bread every eight or ten days. The food which miraculously sustained her life, as in the case of Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Rose of Lima, was, according to the sworn testimony of many witnesses, the Eucharistic Bread alone which she received every morning in Holy Communion. Mary Anne possessed an ecstatic gift of prayer, and is said to have been able to predict the future, see distant events as if they were passing before her, read the secrets of hearts, cure diseases by a mere sign of the Cross or by sprinkling the sufferer with holy water, and at least once restored a dead person to life. During the 1645 earthquakes and subsequent epidemics in Quito, she publicly offered herself as a victim for the city and died shortly thereafter. It is also reported that, on the day she died, her sanctity was revealed in a wonderful manner: immediately after her death, a pure white lily sprang up from her blood, blossomed and bloomed, a prodigy which has given her the title of "The Lily of Quito". The Republic of Ecuador has declared her a national heroine.

Monsignor Alfonso della Pegna initiated the first preliminary steps towards her beatification, and instituted the process of inquiring into and collecting evidence for the sanctity of her life, her virtues and her miracles; but the authenticated copy of the examination of the witnesses was not forwarded to Rome until 1754. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, having discussed and approved of this process, decided in favor of the formal introduction of the cause, and Pope Benedict XIV signed the commission for introducing the cause on December 17, 1757. The Apostolic process concerning the virtues of the Venerable Mary Anne de Paredes was drawn up and examined in due form by the two Preparatory Congregations and by the General Congregation of Rites, and orders were given by Pope Pius VI for the publication of the decree attesting the heroic character of her virtues. The process concerning the two miracles wrought through the intercession of this servant of God was subsequently prepared and, at the request of the Very Reverend Jan Roothaan, General of the Society of Jesus, was examined and accepted by the three congregations, and formally approved on January 11, 1817, by Pope Pius IX. The General Congregation having decided in favor of proceeding to the beatification, Blessed Pius IX commanded the Brief of Beatification to be prepared. Very Reverend Peter Jan Beckx, General of the Society of Jesus, petitioned Cardinal Costantino Patrizi Naro to order the publication of the Brief, and his request was granted. The Brief was read and the solemn beatification took place in the Basilica of St Peter, Rome on November 10, 1853. Many miracles have been claimed to have been the reward of those who have invoked her intercession, especially in America, of which she seems pleased to show herself the especial patroness.