Fr. Bartholomew Ochoa & His Work on Our Lady of Good Success by Marian Horvat & Salwa Bachar,

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Our Lady of Good Success

A Response to Doubters of the Apparitions - 2

Fr. Bartholomew Ochoa & His Work
on Our Lady of Good Success

Marian Horvat & Salwa Bachar

In our last article, we looked at the life of Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira, the 18^th century Franciscan priest who authored the two-volume work The Venerable Life of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres.

As a young soldier, Fr. Pereira was inspired to leave the military and join the army of St. Francis by reading a manuscript on the Conceptionist nun and co-founder of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Quito. This exemplary Conceptionist was Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres y Berriochoa, who offered her life and sufferings as a expiatory victim for the 20^th century, which Our Lord and Our Lady showed her in great detail in many apparitions.

Fr. Ochoa wrote a manuscript on Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres which inspired the work of Fr. Pereira

What was the manuscript that came into the hands of Manuel Sousa Pereira?

Between 1760-1770, Fr. Bartholomew Ochoa de Alácano y Gamboa published a series of articles that became a large book about Mother Mariana. These manuscripts were widely circulated in the Franciscan monasteries of Spain, Portugal and South America, and was the work that so strongly impressed Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira. (1)

To this well-known fact, Mons. Cadena y Almeida, Postulator for the cause of Madre Mariana, adds new data he found in his research: Besides his Biography of Mother Mariana, Fr. Ochoa “is also the author of another booklet, ‘Familiar Conversations that the Servant of God, Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, Abbess and one of the Spanish founders of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Quito in the Colony, had first with her Spanish co-founders, and after their deaths, with her daughters, the fortunate nuns of that time.” (Estudio, p. 2) (2)

He goes on to reveal that the contents of this work is a great number of prophecies of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres that would have their fulfillment in the first decades of this 20^th century, going even up to our days. (Ibid.)

Since it was the work of Fr. Ochoa that so strongly impressed the Franciscan Friar Fr. Manuel Souza Pereira, Msgr. Cadena y Almeida judged it important that the historical authenticity of Fr. Ochoa should also be demonstrated.

Allaying the doubts of skeptics

Although this apparition has enjoyed the approval of the Church since the year 1611 when the Bishop of Quito Pedro de Oviedo consecrated the miraculous Statue of Our Lady of Good Success with holy oils, doubters have always existed.

Perhaps it is because of the gravity of these prophecies, which give details of a great crisis in the Church, reveal a great corruption and immorality in the clergy – even at its apex, predict a worldwide chastisement, to be followed by a great victory for the Holy Church, which would be fully restored to its holiness led by a great prelado.

The Church of San Francisco Monastery in Quito, where Fr. Ochoa held the office of Provincial

This spirit of doubt was in fact predicted in the prophecies. In the apparition of February 2, 1634. Our Lord Himself told Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres:

“Well-placed persons in the world will wage an implacable war against this Convent, and unhappily, even among the Seraphic Family there will be doubt, opposition and indifference. Only souls who are humble and simple of heart will be granted the assurance, certainty and firm conviction of the truth of all that took place in your life, which will remain hidden during the first centuries of this Colony that will become a new nation.” (3)

Some of those skeptics have addressed questions to Tradition in Action, asking for proof of the existence of Fr. Manuel Pereira, disturbed because they could not find his name in Wikipedia. We are happy to report there are sources much older and more reliable than this Internet monster authored primarily by liberals on the left.

As we noted in our last article, Mons. Luis E. Cadena y Almeida, the Postulator for the Cause of Beatification of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, was researching the life of Fr. Pereira and often came upon the mention of the earlier biography of Fr. Bartholomew Ochoa.

In his notes, (4) which we fortuitously have, he attests: “Of the historical existence of these two Franciscan biographers [Fr. Pereira and Fr. Bartholomé Ochoa Alácano y Gamboa] 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,]

Entry in the Book of Famous Men

Again, we turn to the book Varones Ilustres, (Book of Famous Men), the same work that registered an entry for Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira as noted in our last article. In it there is also a listing for Fr. Bartholomew Ochoa, written by Fr. Francisco M. Compte, Apostolic Missionary for the College of San Francisco of Quito in the 1880s.

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

We transcribe below for our readers the first part of this listing for The Rev. Fr. Bartolomé Ochoa de Alácano y Gamboa:

During the years of Our Lord 1720 and following, the Most Rev. Fr. Bartolomé Ochoa de Alácano y Gamboa was considered a religious of great importance in Quito. He received our holy habit on September 20, 1701, under the celebrated Provincial Minister Fr. Martín de San José. He was professed under Fr. Diego Sañoso, Guardian of the greater monastery of Quito, on September 28, 1702.

He made great progress in his studies, and on August 23, 1710, after passing his exams, he was entrusted with the chair of Philosophy at the College of San Buenaventura. He also taught the Theology course with brilliance, and in the Province he held the posts of Custodian, Definitor, Synodal Examiner of Quito and Provincial Minister; the latter office he held twice.

On August 25, 1725, he was elected Provincial Minister for the first time, and the second time on May 31, 1738. On September 15, 1725, he addressed his first Pastoral Letter to the Province, which is very important, since it contained 26 points, replete with heavenly doctrine, aimed at constantly perfecting the religious life and cloister discipline of those who were his subjects.

Speaking on his election and promotion to the Provincialate, he said the following: [his acceptance speech with its humble attitude follows] …

In March 1726 he issued the following Patent in order to procure funds for the cause of Beatification and Canonization of the Ven. María de Jesús de Agreda.

We return to the notes of the Postulator, who tells us that Fr. Ochoa was a native of Spain, a man of great merit and virtue, gifted with a high wisdom and prudence, who lived and died in the greater Monastery of St. Paul of Quito. (Estudio, p. 3)

Msgr. Cadena y Almeida continues: “We have just found in the Archepiscopal Archive a document which records how Fr. Ochoa Alácano y Gamboa, representing his community as Guardian of St. Paul of Quito, received in the year 1722 from the Count of Selva Florida, the quantity of 3,000 pesos, which he used to establish a religious Confraternity.

“Also registered there is the well-known Pastoral Letter that he as Provincial directed to his subjects, exhorting them to contribute to the funds for the beatification of Mother María de Ágreda, the Spanish religious Conceptionist.” (Ibid.)

An unexpected prophecy about Msgr. Cadena

The postulator goes on to note that a manuscript of the book of Fr. Ochoa with said prophecies came into his hands in an unexpected way. (Estudio, p. 2 )

Msgr. Luis Cadena y Almeida, postulator for the cause of Ven. Mariana de Jesus Torres

These prophecies raised in him some doubts. He writes: “They obliged me to meditate on them with impartiality and a rigorous objectivity because at first they gave me the impression of facing a possible interpolation, since its [prophetic] announcements concerned persons too well known in our own social milieu, preceded by last names and concrete actions that leave no room to consider them fanciful inventions.” (Ibid.)

We leave his notes, and turn now to a most interesting episode the Postulator related to a friend and colleague toward the end of his life. He reported that these doubts, which he had expressed in his notes, had been suddenly expelled as he was reading the handwritten manuscript. Turning a page, he found a prophecy in which Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres announced that the Cause of her Beatification would be opened at the end of the 20^th century.

Then, dumbfounded, he read in the 18^th century manuscript his own full name. It stated that he, Msgr. Luis Cadena y Almeida, would open the process for Madre Mariana, but that it would not reach the end because he would die in the year 1995.

The postulator took the prophecy quite seriously and assiduously promoted the cause of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres for the last two years of his life. For this prophecy, like all the others, came to pass exactly as predicted.

1. The Conversion of A Soldier, excerpt from the book by Fr. Manuel Souza Pereira,The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana of Jesus Torres, Vol. 2;
2. Mons. Cadena & Almeida’s eight pages of 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. It will be referred to in this article as “Estudio.”
3. Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira, The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana, Vol. II, p. 142
4. The Postulator’s 8 pages of 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.” His handwritten signature appears below the title

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