Exactly 150 years ago, on August 6, 1875, the great Ecuadorean president Gabriel García Moreno, quite possibly the greatest modern Catholic politician and the one who bore the most perfect witness to the social kingship of Jesus Christ, was assassinated on the steps of the cathedral of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. In spite of many “liberalizing” reforms for his country, his counterrevolutionary conservatism was a constant irritant to the anticlerical and freemasonic elements that plotted his death.
The best account of García Moreno’s life online is that written by Gary Potter, which can be found in a number of places, such as
FishEaters. Here is Potter’s account, drawing on the classic biography by Fr. Berthe. That the president was a saintly Catholic is difficult to dispute. In particular, one should note the centrality of the Holy Mass to his life.
According to Fr. Berthe: “Not only did he not fear death, but like the martyrs he desired it for the love of God. How often did he write and utter these words: ‘What a happiness and glory for me if I should be called upon to shed my blood for Jesus Christ and His Church.’”
Did he mean that? Had he been truly transformed, truly converted, when he abandoned the ways of his young manhood and returned to religion? We have heard here about some of the laws he saw enacted in favor of the Church, in favor of the Faith. Let us add to the picture that he attended Mass every day, that he recited the Rosary every day, that he spent a half-hour every day in meditation. Was he sincere in all this, or was all of it a pose, a kind of public-relations campaign in days before PR existed? If he was seen at Mass every morning, was that simply an 1870’s version of the photo-op? […]
Fr. Berthe does quote him talking about hypocrisy as such. This was when he was accused of it on account of letting himself be seen practicing the Faith publicly. “Hypocrisy,” he said, “consists in acting differently from what one believes. Real hypocrites, therefore, are men who have the Faith, but who, from respect, do not dare to show it in their practice.”
If that were not all the answer needed as to whether García Moreno was a hypocrite, it can be demonstrated in various ways that the private man and public one corresponded perfectly. No demonstration could be clearer, however, than citing the rule for himself that he wrote down in his copy of the Imitation of Christ. It was mentioned earlier. Bearing in mind that he did not know death awaited him outside the cathedral on August 6, 1875, that he did not know the Imitation would be found in his pocket that day, and that therefore the rule would ever be read by anyone else, here it is in its entirety:
“Every morning when saying my prayers I will ask specially for the virtue of humility.
“Every day I will hear Mass, say the Rosary, and read, besides a chapter of the Imitation, this rule and the annexed instructions.
“I will take care to keep myself as much as possible in the presence of God, especially in conversation, so as not to speak useless words. I will constantly offer my heart to God, and principally before beginning any action.
“I will say to myself continually: I am worse than a demon and deserve that Hell should be my dwelling-place. When I am tempted, I will add: What shall I think of this in the hour of my last agony?
“In my room, never to pray sitting when I can do so on my knees or standing. Practice daily little acts of humility, like kissing the ground, for example. Desire all kinds of humiliations, while taking care at the same time not to deserve them. To rejoice when my actions or my person are abused and censured.
“Never to speak of myself, unless it be to own my defects or faults.
“To make every effort, by the thought of Jesus and Mary, to restrain my impatience and contradict my natural inclinations. To be patient and amiable even with people who bore me; never to speak evil of my enemies.
“Every morning, before beginning my work, I will write down what I have to do, being very careful to distribute my time well, to give myself only to useful and necessary business and to continue it with zeal and perseverance. I will scrupulously observe the laws of justice and truth, and have no intention in all my actions save the greater glory of God.
“I will make a particular examination twice a day on my exercise of different virtues, and a general examination every evening. I will go to confession every week.
“I will avoid all familiarities, even the most innocent, as prudence requires. I will never pass more than an hour in any amusement, and in general, never before eight o’clock in the evening.”
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| A statue in honor of Garcia Moreno at the Basílica del Voto Nacional del Ecuador |
Another writer, Joseph Sladky, offers more details about his daily horarium, which would put to shame some modern active and contemplative religious orders:
His Rule of Life [as president] also demonstrates the discipline of his daily life. His day was ordered and regular. He arose at 5:00 A.M., proceeded to church at 6:00 A.M., hearing Mass and making his meditation. At 7:00 A.M. he visited the sick in the hospital, after which he worked in his room until 10:00 A.M. After a frugal breakfast, he worked with his ministers until 3:00 P.M. After dinner at 4:00 P.M., he made necessary visits and settled disputes. At 6:00 P.M. he returned home to spend time with his family until 9:00 P.M. When others took rest or went to their amusements, he returned to his office, working until 11:00 P.M. or midnight.
Potter resumes with details about the president’s death:
The medical examination of García Moreno after he was killed showed he was shot six times and struck by a machete fourteen. One of the machete blows sliced into his brain.
Incredibly, he did not die immediately. When cathedral priests reached him, he was still breathing. He was carried back inside and laid at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. A doctor was called, but could do nothing. One of the priests urged him to forgive his killers. He could not speak, but his eyes answered that he had already done so. Extreme Unction was administered. Fifteen minutes later he was dead, there in the cathedral.
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| The exact place where Garcia Moreno gave up his spirit to God, marked in the cathedral of Quito |
Sladky notes that the uprising expected by the anarchists never materialized; the president was too beloved.
After the assassination of García Moreno, the whole town of Quito went into mourning, with the bells tolling continuously. The conspirators thought that the assassination would break into a revolution. They were to be disappointed. For three days, while his body lay in State in the cathedral, thousands of sobbing people came to pay their respects to the man who had done so much for their country. In the session of 16 September 1875 the Ecuadorian Congress issued a decree in which they paid homage to García Moreno as “The Regenerator of his country, and the Martyr of Catholic Civilization.”
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| The president’s tomb in the cathedral |
In 1921, the centennial of García Moreno’s birth, a poet penned
these accurate words:
The eternal passage of time
Has not dimmed the greatness that is thine,
And never will, in all surety,
Leave in darkened obscurity
The brilliant glory of your life sublime!
Sadly, I think it is fair to say even if García Moreno is fully suitable for beatification (as I believe he is, on the basis of an objective evaluation of his life), he would currently be seen as too “off-message” from Vatican II’s
Dignitatis Humane, Gaudium et Spes, and so forth. He is a president of
Immortale Dei and
Quas Primas, documents out of fashion. But perhaps this too will change someday.
After all, García Moreno’s last words were, “God does not die.” And neither does the truth about the primacy of the spiritual and the supernatural over the temporal and the natural, without which the latter withers and dies.
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| The dead Garcia Moreno |
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