St. Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán

Biography

St. Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán (1832–1869) was born on October 29, 1832, in the village of San José, in Nobol, near Daule, on the coast of Ecuador. She was the sixth of nine children of Pedro Martillo and Josefa Morán, farming landowners. Her mother died when she was a small child, and she helped raise her younger siblings. From childhood she was drawn to prayer and solitude, and she took St. Mariana de Jesús of Quito as her model. After her father's death in 1852, she moved to Guayaquil, where she earned her living as a seamstress, shared what she had with the poor and sick, and taught the faith to children. She lived as a laywoman, dedicated to God by private vows, and gave long hours to prayer and penance. Guided by her confessor, in 1868 she went to Lima, Peru, and lived as a lay boarder in the Dominican convent of Patrocinio, while remaining a laywoman. There she continued her life of prayer, fasting, and daily Communion. She died after a brief illness with high fever on December 8, 1869, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, at thirty-seven. Her body was later brought home to Ecuador and now rests in her shrine at Nobol. Pope St. John Paul II beatified her in 1992, and Pope Benedict XVI canonized her on October 12, 2008.

Patronages

Symbols