The Saints: St. Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran

c. 1832-1869 / Feast - Dec. 8 

After she was orphaned as a young person in rural Ecuador, Narcisa moved to Guayaquil, a large coastal town, where she did manual labor for 15 years while devoting herself to prayer and good works.

In 1868 she went to Lima, Peru, lodging in the hostel of the Lay Brothers of St. Dominic. This laywoman sought holiness through prayer and self-mortification, often praying alone for eight hours daily and doing penance for four hours nightly, sometimes wearing a crown of thorns or suspending herself from a cross.

She was beatified in 1993 and canonized in 2008.