At Riobamba in Ecuador, Blessed Mercedes of Jesus Molina, virgin, who founded a religious community whose work was to receive and instruct poor orphan girls, to rescue women fallen into vice, and to confirm them in a new life of grace.
Lifespan: 1828–1883
Beatified: 1 February 1985 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 12 June
“To bring help and consolation to all afflicted hearts in the world”
Mercedes Molina di Gesù, born in the world as Mercedes de Jesús Molina y Ayala, was born in Baba (Los Ríos, Ecuador) on 24 September 1828. She later moved to Guayaquil, and after the death of her parents she gave herself to a rather worldly life.
She suffered a serious accident, falling from a horse, and following this she returned to a more religious life and austere penance. Having made her three private vows, she devoted herself to the care of orphaned and abandoned girls, and then collaborated with the Jesuit fathers engaged in the evangelization of the Jívaro peoples.
When the Jesuits were compelled to depart from Guayaquil, she was forced to leave the Mission and settled permanently in Riobamba. There, on 14 April 1873, she took vows in the hands of the bishop, founding the Institute of the Sisters of Saint Mariana of Jesus, whose purpose was the care of orphan girls, the sheltering of converts and girls in danger, and assistance to women in prison.
She lived and worked in the exercise of Christian virtues, bearing with joy and acceptance sufferings and tribulations, until she died in the peace of the Lord on 12 June 1883, in her Institute at Riobamba.
Three years later the first process for her beatification was begun, but it was interrupted for a long time due to political circumstances and the opposition of persons hostile to her Institute. The process was resumed in 1929; the cause was formally introduced on 8 February 1946, and the decree on her virtues was issued on 27 November 1981. On 9 June 1984 a miracle attributed to her intercession was recognized, and on 1 February 1985 Pope John Paul II beatified her in Guayaquil during his apostolic journey to Ecuador.