May 26 - Saint Mary Ann de Paredes
Quick Facts- Daughter of Don Girolamo Flores Zenel de Paredes, a nobleman of Toledo, and Dona Mariana Cranobles de Xaramilo; her birth was accompanied by unusual celestial phenomena.
- Orphaned very young, she was raised by her older sister and her husband.
- Mary Ann was a pious child with a devotion to Mary.
- She was miraculously saved from death several times.
- Attracted to religious life at an early age, at ten she made vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
- She initially wanted to be a Dominican nun, but instead became a hermit in home of her sister; her life changed at that point, and except for church, she never left the house again.
- Given to severe austerities, she slept little, and ate an ounce of dry bread every eight or ten days, surviving solely on the Eucharist which she received during daily Communion.
- Given to ecstacies; had gifts of prophecy, remote viewing, reading of hearts, healing by making the Sign of the Cross or sprinkling with holy water, and at least once restored a dead person to life.
- During the 1645 earthquakes, and inevitable epidemics, in Quito, she publicly offered herself as a victim for the city and died shortly after.
- Immediately after her death there blossomed a pure white lily from her blood.
- The Repulic of Ecuador has declared her a national heroine
