St. Narcisa De Jesus Martillo y Moran (1832-1869)

Born in Ecuador to a wealthy family, she had a clear perception of her call to sanctity from an early age. After her father’s death in 1852, Narcisa moved to Guayaquil to stay with a very well-known family who lived near the cathedral. She stayed in this city until 1868. She preserved her privacy and to dedicated herself with greater freedom to prayer and penance, earning her living by doing tailoring work. She helped the poor and the sick. Driven by a desire for greater perfection, and advised by a Franciscan religious, she set off in June 1868 for Lima (Perù) and lived as a lay member in the Dominican convent of Patrocinio, founded in 1688. The Lord favoured her with extraordinary gifts, and showed her how pleasing her life was, in the midst of trials of the spirit. Towards the end of September 1869, she had high fevers. Medical remedies could do little, but she kept up her normal rhythm of life, ending with a novena and the celebration of the Eucharist, with great joy, dressed in white, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the same day which Vatican Council I opened. At the end of the day she took leave of the sisters, saying she was going on a journey very far. She was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2008.
(From the Vatican website)