Novena to Our Lady Of Good Success

The novena to Our Lady of Good Success is a nine-day prayer to the Blessed Virgin under one of her most consoling titles — Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso, the Lady of the good outcome — asking her, through the intercession of the servant of God Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, to obtain a happy issue in some difficult or seemingly hopeless matter. It is prayed above all in the nine days leading to her feast on February 2, the Purification of Our Lady (Candlemas), traditionally from January 24 to February 1. Below is the complete daily prayer, the meditations of the longer "of the Purification" form, how to pray it, and the true story of the apparitions in Quito that gave the Church this devotion.

What "Good Success" means

The Spanish buen suceso does not mean worldly success or the getting of what we want. It means a good outcome — that whatever we commend to Our Lady will end well, in the way that is truly good, "so long as it contributes to the salvation of my soul and the glory and exaltation of Holy Mother Church." Under this title Our Lady is invoked as the all-powerful intercessor for a good issue in grave and difficult matters: a hard decision, a dangerous undertaking, a trial with no visible way out, the needs of the Church and her priests, and the great crisis of faith she herself foretold. If you are new to this form of prayer, see our short guide to what is a novena.

The full novena to Our Lady of Good Success

This is the daily prayer at the heart of the devotion, said once on each of the nine days. It salutes Our Lady in her relation to each of the three Divine Persons, invokes the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres — to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared under this title — and calls on the three archangels who, in the apparitions, greeted Our Lady with these very salutations. Name your intention where indicated.

Begin with the Sign of the Cross.

Hail Mary Most Holy, Beloved Daughter of God the Father. Through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, grant thy good success to this request (here mention your request).

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Hail Mary Most Holy, Admirable Mother of God the Son. Through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, grant thy good success to this request (mention your request).

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Hail Mary Most Holy, Most Faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, grant thy good success to this request (mention your request).

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Close with the Hail Holy Queen (Salve Regina), and the Sign of the Cross.

Some printed forms add a fourth salutation, Hail Mary Most Holy, Temple and Sacrarium of the Most Holy Trinity, gathering the three Persons into one act of praise before the closing Salve. The three greetings themselves — Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Spouse of the Holy Ghost — are the words the archangels used, and are the reason each is followed by the invocation of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Raphael. If you would like the closing prayer in full, we give it with a short commentary in our page on the Hail Holy Queen.

The novena of Our Lady of Good Success of the Purification

Beside the short daily prayer above there is a fuller, older form — the novena to Our Lady of Good Success of the Purification — built to be prayed as a nine-day meditation on the apparitions themselves. Each day joins an Act of Contrition and a daily Initial Prayer (begging a lively faith, a firm hope, and an ardent charity through the Lady of Good Success) to a short reading on one moment of the story, and closes with a Thanksgiving to the Most Blessed Virgin, a Final Prayer, and a Consecration of oneself to her as patroness and mother. The nine meditations run thus:

• Day 1 — The origin of the devotion, asking the virtue of patience to suffer trials with resignation.
• Day 2 — The founding of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Quito (1577), asking boundless confidence in Our Lady and the grace of obedience.
• Day 3 — Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres herself, asking a living and firm faith like hers.
• Day 4 — The great apparition of February 2, 1610, asking that we correspond to grace with virtue as she did.
• Day 5 — The revealing of the title "Mary of Good Success of the Purification," asking that our hearts be inflamed with love of her.
• Day 6 — Our Lady's request for a statue, asking that we have recourse to her with a tender and fervent heart.
• Day 7 — The measuring of the sacred image, which Mother Mariana took with her own belt-cord, asking that Our Lady increase our confidence that she will heed our pleas.
• Day 8 — The carving of the statue, finished by the hands of the archangels, asking the favour we implore with confidence.
• Day 9 — A great miracle of the image, asking that we may one day enjoy her company in Heaven for ever. Amen.

Both forms are true to the devotion. Pray the short daily prayer above if you want a simple, memorable novena; pray the "of the Purification" form if you wish to keep the nine days as a slow, meditative walk through the whole history.

A short novena to Our Lady of Good Success

If you are pressed for time, the short novena is simply the three-salutation daily prayer given above — Beloved Daughter of God the Father… Admirable Mother of God the Son… Most Faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost — said once a day for nine days with your one intention named throughout, and closed with the Hail Holy Queen. It takes only a few minutes and asks for nothing beyond the good outcome of the matter you place in Our Lady's hands, in submission to the will of God.

How to pray this novena

A novena is nine days of one steady petition, from the Latin novem, "nine." To pray this one well:

1. Choose your dates. The classic time is the nine days before her feast — January 24 through February 1, ending on the eve of the Purification (some keep it January 25 to February 2 instead). But the novena may be prayed at any time of year when you have a grave or difficult matter to commend.
2. Name one intention and keep it through all nine days. Under this title the request is for a good success — a right and happy outcome — rather than simply for the thing you want; ask, and then leave the manner of the answer to God.
3. Pray at a fixed hour each day, the same short prayer, without hurry. Add it if you can to a decade of the Rosary — this is a Marian devotion, and the Rosary is its natural companion; see how to pray the Rosary.
4. End in resignation. The good success we ask is always subject to "the salvation of my soul and the glory of Holy Mother Church." Pray, and trust her.

The story of Our Lady of Good Success

The devotion was born in the cloister of the Conceptionist nuns of Quito, in what is now Ecuador. Between 1594 and 1634 — forty years — the Blessed Virgin appeared many times to a Spanish-born nun of that convent, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (1563–1635), one of the founding sisters of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, a woman of great holiness and heavy penance who offered herself repeatedly as a victim for the Church.

In an apparition of January 16, 1599, Our Lady commanded that a statue be carved showing her exactly as she appeared — crowned, bearing the Child Jesus on her left arm and, in her right hand, the abbatial crosier and the keys of the cloister, the sign that she would be the convent's Abbess and protectress — and bade Mother Mariana measure her height with the cord of her own religious habit. The work was later entrusted to a Spanish sculptor, Francisco del Castillo. On the morning of January 16, 1611, Mother Mariana found the image miraculously completed: what the sculptor had left unfinished had been finished, tradition holds, by the hands of the archangels. It was at the great apparition of February 2, 1610, the feast of the Purification, that Our Lady revealed the title by which she wished to be honoured — La Reina del Cielo bajo la advocación del Buen Suceso, the Queen of Heaven under the title of Good Success — for she promised a good outcome to all who sought her under it.

On February 2, 1611, the bishop of Quito solemnly instituted the devotion, placing the keys of the convent and his own crosier into the hands of the miraculous statue. The apparitions were approved by the local bishop during Mother Mariana's own lifetime — an unusually swift and direct sanction. She died in the odour of sanctity in 1635.

Much of the interest in this devotion today comes from the prophecies Our Lady confided to her: she spoke of a grave crisis of faith and morals that would fall upon the Church and upon society, above all in the twentieth century — a loss of innocence in the young, a slackening of the priesthood, and a darkening of the light of faith — and she promised her good success, her sure intercession, precisely for those hard days. This is why the devotion is so often joined to prayer for the Church, for priests, and for purity, and why many pair it with the great twentieth-century Marian call of Our Lady of Fatima and with the reparation of the First Saturdays. The whole devotion rests, as every true Marian devotion does, on her Immaculate Conception — the mystery under which her Quito monastery was founded; see the Immaculate Conception and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Our Lady of Good Success?

Our Lady of Good Success (Nuestra Señora del Buen Suceso) is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary given during her apparitions to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres in Quito, Ecuador, between 1594 and 1634. Under this title she promises a good success — a right and happy outcome — to those who invoke her in difficult matters, and she is honoured in a miraculous statue kept by the Conceptionist nuns of Quito. Her feast is February 2, the Purification of Our Lady.

What is the novena to Our Lady of Good Success prayed for?

It is prayed for a good outcome in any grave or difficult matter — a hard decision, a dangerous undertaking, a trial with no visible way out — and above all for the Church, for priests and religious, and for purity and the faith of the young, which Our Lady singled out in her prophecies. The petition is always made "so long as it contributes to the salvation of my soul and the glory of Holy Mother Church."

When is the feast of Our Lady of Good Success?

Her principal feast is February 2, the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, or Candlemas — the same day on which she revealed her title in 1610 and on which the devotion was solemnly instituted in Quito in 1611. This is why the novena is prayed in the nine days leading up to it.

What dates do you pray the novena to Our Lady of Good Success?

The traditional nine days are January 24 to February 1, ending on the eve of the February 2 feast (some keep it January 25 to February 2). It may, however, be prayed at any time of the year whenever you have a difficult matter to place in Our Lady's hands.

Who is Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres?

Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (1563–1635) was a Spanish-born Conceptionist nun and one of the founders of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Quito. Our Lady appeared to her over forty years, entrusted her with the title of Good Success and with prophecies about the Church, and used her to have the miraculous statue made. She is invoked as the intercessor named in the novena, and died with a great reputation for holiness.

Is the devotion to Our Lady of Good Success approved by the Church?

Yes. The apparitions and the devotion received the approval of the local bishop of Quito during Mother Mariana's own lifetime, and the devotion was solemnly instituted there on February 2, 1611. It is a long-established, orthodox Marian devotion of the Church's traditional treasury, distinct from and older than its twentieth-century popularization.

Is there a short version or a PDF of the novena?

Yes — the short novena is simply the three-salutation daily prayer given in full above (Beloved Daughter of God the Father… Admirable Mother of God the Son… Most Faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost), said once a day for nine days with the Hail Holy Queen at the close. You can copy that text to keep beside you for the nine days; the Iter Fidei app also carries the whole novena with day-by-day reminders and audio, so no printed sheet is needed.

Pray this novena in the Iter Fidei app, with a reminder each of the nine days, the daily prayer in Latin and your own language, and audio to pray along. Download it here.

Sources. The traditional novena to Our Lady of Good Success and the "of the Purification" novena (Act of Contrition, Initial Prayer, nine daily meditations, Thanksgiving, Final Prayer, and Consecration) as carried in the devotional books of the Conceptionist nuns of Quito; the apparitions to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (1594–1634) and the institution of the devotion at Quito, February 2, 1611, approved by the local Ordinary; the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (February 2); the Hail Holy Queen (Salve Regina).