Facts about Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira by Marian Horvat & Salwa Bachar,

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Our Lady of Good Success

A Response to Doubters of the Apparitions - 1

Facts about Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira

Marian Horvat & Salwa Bachar

Several requests from readers in the last few years have come to the TIA desk asking if there is any biographical information available about Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira, author of The Venerable Life of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres. Doubts – fed by those who have ill will toward this devotion – seem to be circulating about his historical existence.

Many saw Our Lady’s visage take on a life like color
& glow with a supernatural light

What is generally known is that the 18^th century Portuguese soldier Manuel Pereira became a Franciscan friar. Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres appeared to him in dreams and told him to join the army of St Francis. In the year 1777 Pereira, already a Franciscan lay brother, traveled to Ecuador and eventually became a priest and spiritual director of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Quito. With access to all the documents and works in the Convent’s Archive – including the Autobiography of Mother Mariana – he took up the work of writing her life, which he finished in 1790.

This article is a brief summary of what we know from the chapter in his book that describes his life and conversion, which you can read here.

The notes of the Postulator

Recently we came upon the eight pages of typed notes of Mons. Dr. Luís E. Cadena y Almeida, the deceased postulator for the Cause of Beatification of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres y Berriochoa. At the end of his life, he was researching the life of Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira for a short biography he planned to write on the Franciscan priest.

The Postulator’s notes are titled: “Study of the Book of Most Rev. Fr. Manuel Sousa y Pereira, OFM, as a source of Biographical Historicity of the Servant of God Mother Mariana Francisca de Jesús Torres y Berriochoa,” and his handwritten signature appears below the title. (see photo below) We will refer to this source as Estudio throughout this article.

The Notes of the Postulator on Fr. Pereira & the work he authored The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana

As Postulator, he had access to the Archives of the Archbishop and the Conceptionists, as well as to the Franciscan Library of Quito’s oldest Monastery, formerly called Convento Máximo de la Conversión de San Pablo, (Greater Monastery of St. Paul), known today as the Convento de San Francisco de Quito (Monastery of St. Francis of Quito). Its massive library presently houses 8,600 books from the 16^th to 19^th centuries.

Mons. Cadena y Almeida is a serious scholar who has doctorates in Philosophy, History and Letters; among other works he founded and directed six Educational Institutions for primary and secondary formations in Quito. (1) We see there is good reason to take his study seriously.

In his notes, he attests: “Of the historical existence of these two Franciscan biographers [Fr. Pereira and Fr. Bartholomé Ochoa Alácano y Gamboa, who wrote a larger work on Mother Mariana 30 years earlier] there are irrefutable proofs in the Archbishop’s Archive of the Curia, as well as in the Monastery of St. Paul of Quito [Monastery of St. Francis].”(Estudio, p. 3)

An entry in the Illustrious Men of the Seraphic Order

One irrefutable proof of Fr. Pereira’s existence is found in the second volume of an 1885 work titled Illustrious Men of the Seraphic Order of Ecuador. On pages 328-329 there is the entry Rev. Fr. Manuel Sousa y Pereira. The short description is transcribed below:

The book Varones Ilustres, above, includes Fr. Manuel Pereira among the great men in Quito, below

illustres varones pereira

“I cannot leave out the mention of the Rev. Fr. Manuel Sousa y Pereira, Portuguese by birth, a son of the town Sotomayor in the bishopric of Braga. This religious man had been a soldier and held the rank of Corporal in the squadron of one of the companies destined for Pará [Brazil]. He took off the military uniform and put on the cincture of Our Holy Founder St. Francis as a lay brother in the main monastery of Quito.

He was professed on February 5, 1778, being 27 years and 2 months old. On the advice of his confessor and with the dispensation of the Rev. Fr. General Commissioner of the Indies, he later entered the clerical state and was ordained a priest. Despite the fact that he was Portuguese, the King of Spain, Charles III, as communicated by the Secretary of the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies in an Official Letter of July 7, 1786, incorporated him into this Province of Quito, as did the Father General Commissioner of the Indies, Fr. Manuel M. Tnijillo, by his Patent Letters of July 17 of the same year. The Province admitted and incorporated him on August 31, 1787.

Fr. Sousa behaved admirably in the performance of the various charges entrusted to him by Religion. He was Guardian of the Greater Monastery of San Diego and the College of San Buenaventura. And during the difficult situation that the Province went through in the years up to 1813, he made his visitations with great prudence, presiding over the Chapter held in the Monastery of Buenaventura in Riobamba on September 18, 1813. All his acts were approved, and he was thanked for his useful services by the Rev. Fr. Commissary General of the Indies, Fr. Pablo de Moya.

Fr. Sousa was also a great lover of Mary, and in 1792 he promoted her devotion with great zeal, reestablishing the Confraternity of her Slaves, established canonically since 1671 in the Chapel of the Virgin of the Pillar in Zaragoza in the Church of San Francisco in Quito. Its Statutes and Constitutions had been approved by the Illustrious Bishop of the same city, Dr. D. Alonso de la Peña Montenegro, on May 7, 1677. See the Documents relating to this matter (the documents are transcribed on pp. 329-333).

Facts about Fr. Manuel Pereira

Returning to the Postulator’s notes, in them we find these facts:

Manuel Sousa Pereira received Orders, both Minor and Major, from the hands of the 21^st Bishop of Quito Msgr. Dr. Blas Manuel Sobrino y Minayo, who governed from 1776 to 1789.

Fr. Pereira was ordained priest by Bishop of Quito Blas Sobrino y Minayo (1725-1796), above
Msgr. Cadena writes: “These dates can be verified exactly and truthfully with what he reports to us about himself in his invaluable historical monument entitled “Admirable Life of the Ven. Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, Spaniard and One of the Founders of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in the City of Quito. There are also other documents written by his hand and letter that are in the possession of the Archepiscopal Archive.”
Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira made his profession of religious vows on February 5, 1778, at age 27; a decree was issued incorporating him into the Province of St. Paul of Quito in 1786, and he was ordained a priest in 1787. (Estudio, p. 4) Shortly after his ordination, Fr. Sousa Pereira served as Secretary to Bishop Sobrino y Minayo during his Canonical Visit to the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception. (Estudio, p. 1)
At the request of the Conceptionist religious of Quito, he proposed to write the biography of that Convent’s “celestial treasure,” Madre Mariana Francisca de Jesús Torres. To carry out the task, he had at his disposition all the material available in the Convent’s archive. Since this was only one century after her death, Mons. Cadena y Almeida notes, the memory of her was still fresh in the hearts and minds of the nuns (Estudio ,p. 1).

Mons. Cadena y Almeida’s notes list these works that Fr. Pereira had at his disposal to write the Admirable Life:

Mother Mariana’s Autobiography, written at the command of and approved by Archbishop Msgr. Pedro de Oviedo (Estudio, p. 1);
The Books of the Foundation (Estudio, p.1);
The biographies of the other Founding Mothers written after their deaths by Friars Miguel Romero, Jerónimo Tamayo and Fr. Luis Catena (Estudio, p. 2);
The Annals recording the religious professions and deaths of the nuns and religious sisters (Estudio ,p. 1);
The records of the Episcopal canonical visits, which “overflow with praise and admiration” for Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres (Estudio, p. 1);
The original letter of Bishop Luis López de Solís in which he humbly acknowledges his unjust order to incarcerate Mother Mariana in the Convent prison because he allowed himself to be influenced by internal intrigues (Estudio, p. 1);
The Obsequies of high praise preached by His Excellency Bishop Pedro de Oviedo at Mother Mariana’s funeral (Estudio, p. 2).

Careful study & his testimony

Archbishop Manuel Maria Lasso, left, promoted The Admirable Life; Card. Carlos de la Torre ordered an examination of the work, which was approved as authentic

At the end of his notes, Mons. Almeida y Cadena provides interesting data about an Episcopal examination that was conducted regarding the Admirable Life in the 1930s:

”During the Archepiscopal government of Msgr. Manuel María Pólit Lasso (1918-1932), a Prelate who was piously enamored of that grandiose and holy soul Mother Mariana Francisca de Jesús Torres, the publication of the apparitions of the Most Holy Mother of Good Success to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres was authorized [to be printed] in the archdiocesan Sunday Bulletin El Amigo, extracting them from the Admirable Life.

But, he continues, after the death of this Prelate, his successor, Archbishop Carlos María de la Torre (1933-1967), took a more cautious stance and ordered the suspension of the Sunday publications about the Apparitions “until the writings could be verified as authentic.”

Toward that end, “he ordered the withdrawal of the manuscript copy that the Convent possessed of said Admirable Life, and he named an Ecclesiastical Commission composed of Rev. Frs. José María Le-Gouhir, SJ and Fr. Leonardo M. Jaime, OFM to study the historical and theological authenticity and its fidelity in the transcription of the authentic work of Fr. Manuel Sousa y Pereira.” (Estudio, p 6)

After a “severe and conscientious study," the two priests affirmed the authenticity and fidelity of the excerpts to the work, which they judged to be historically sound and authentic. Msgr. Cadena writes: “I present here the xerox copies – in all their integrity – with the positive results of their theological-historical investigation, which has the full right to be considered an authentic juridical decision. “

“For my part,” he continues, “with the greatest modesty, knowing myself to be far from possessing the theological, juridical and historical qualities required for a judgment of such stature, but allowing myself to be guided by my love for the Church and my doctrinal orthodoxy, I declare that I am fully convinced of its (Admirable Life) authenticity and fidelity.

“It suffices to read slowly and dispassionately the two volumes that belong to the Convent to form a criterion of moral certainty: The style, the ascetic doctrine is unitary from beginning to the end of the two volumes; it follows a single inspiration, not even a hint of interpolation is noted.

“In the report of the historical facts, there is full conformity with any text that is examined; in the prophetic announcements there is an flawless naturality, with no traces of invention or fiction. Of even greater import is the fulfillment that all the prophecies have had in due time.” (Ibid.)

Continued

1. A brief Curriculum Vitae of Msgr. Luis E. Cadena y Almeida can be found in his work titled A Spanish Mystic in Quito: Sor Maríana de Jesús Torres, NY: Foundation for a Christian Civilization, 1990, p 159.
2. This work can be found and downloaded on the Internet Archive, the entry for the Rev. Father Manuel Sousa y Pereira on pp. 398-399.
3. Rev. Fr. Francisco Maria Compte, Varones Ilustres de la Orden Serafica en El Ecuador desde la Fundacion de Quito hasta Nuestra Dias, 2^nd, Ed., Quito, Imprenta del Clero, 1886, pp. 329-333