Quito, Ecuador, 11 September, 2024 / 1:05 pm (ACI Africa).
Some 65,000 hosts, which are being consecrated in the Masses celebrated during the 2024 International Eucharistic Congress in Quito, Ecuador, could not have come from a better place: the home of Ecuador’s first saint, St. Mariana of Jesus. The home was converted into a Carmelite monastery a few years after the young woman’s death.
The Old Carmelite Monastery of San José, known as El Carmen Alto (“The Upper Carmel,” for its location), is located in the historic district of Quito, where the Ecuadorian saint lived from 1618 to 1645. The saint was a great devotee of St. Teresa of Jesus, the Carmelite mystic and reformer.
According to the historical account, the young Mariana de Jesús Paredes had expressed the desire for her home to become a Carmelite monastery. At present, the home is the residence of 21 nuns who in recent weeks have dedicated themselves to the task of completing 133 packages of 500 small hosts each and 130 packages of 25 medium-sized hosts each, in addition to the special large size.
“Making the hosts is bringing Jesus into our lives, bringing Jesus into the hearts of people,” Mother Verónica of the Holy Face, prioress of the Upper Carmel, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.