EWTN Television Special Highlights Life of St. Narissa, Laywoman

Narcisa De Jesus


Thurs. November 4 at 3 AM ET & 6:30 PM ET

St. Narcisa Martillo Moran, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, was a laywoman who lived a life of intense prayer, austerity, and mortification. This documentary explores her fascinating life and spirituality.

The daughter of Pedro Martillo Mosquera and Josefina Moran, Narcisa's family were farmers, and her parents died when she was still a child. She moved to Guayaquil, where for the next 15 years she worked as a seamstress to support her younger siblings, living a single life, helping those even poorer than herself when she could, and spending her time in prayer. In 1868 she moved to Lima, where she worked in a convent of Dominican nuns. She never took vows and remained a lay person her whole life, but spent eight hours a day in prayer, lived as austerely as any religious, and was known to experience ecstasies.
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