RELIGIOUS FIGURES from Ecuador

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Ecuadorean Religious Figures of all time. This list of famous Ecuadorean Religious Figures is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Mariana de Jesús de Paredes (1618 - 1645)

With an HPI of 51.24, Mariana de Jesús de Paredes is the most famous Ecuadorean Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages on wikipedia.

Mariana of Jesus de Paredes (Spanish: Mariana or María Ana de Jesús de Paredes; October 31, 1618 – May 26, 1645) is a Catholic saint and was the first person to be canonized from what is now Ecuador. She was a recluse who is said to have sacrificed herself for the salvation of her city. She was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1853 and canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950. She is the patroness saint of Ecuador. Her relics are the Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito. Her feast day is celebrated on May 26, on May 28 in the Franciscan Order.

2. Raúl Eduardo Vela Chiriboga (1934 - 2020)

With an HPI of 48.51, Raúl Eduardo Vela Chiriboga is the 2nd most famous Ecuadorean Religious Figure.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Raúl Eduardo Vela Chiriboga (1 January 1934 – 15 November 2020) was an Ecuadorian prelate of the Catholic Church who was the Archbishop of Quito from 2003 to 2010. He became a bishop coadjutor in 1972 and served as an auxiliary in Guayaquil, Bishop of Azogues, and Military Ordinary of Ecuador before his appointment in Quito. Pope Benedict XVI raised him to the rank of cardinal in 2010.

3. Antonio José González Zumárraga (1925 - 2008)

With an HPI of 45.64, Antonio José González Zumárraga is the 3rd most famous Ecuadorean Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Antonio José González Zumárraga (March 18, 1925 – October 13, 2008) was an Ecuadorian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. González Zumárraga was born in Pujili, Ecuador. He was ordained priest on July 29, 1951, following studies at the San José seminary in Quito and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain, where he obtained a doctorate in canon law. He was made auxiliary bishop of Quito on May 17, 1969 (with the titular diocese of Tagarata) and was consecrated as bishop in Quito on June 15, 1969, by Cardinal Pablo Muñoz Vega, SJ, Archbishop of Quito. He was made Bishop of Machala on June 30, 1978, and then Coadjutor Archbishop of Quito on June 28, 1980. He succeeded to full governance of the Archdiocese on June 1, 1985. He was created as a Cardinal Priest (Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria in Via) in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.

4. Carlos María de la Torre (1873 - 1968)

With an HPI of 44.32, Carlos María de la Torre is the 4th most famous Ecuadorean Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Carlos María Javier de la Torre y Nieto (15 November 1873, Quito, Ecuador – 31 July 1968, Quito, Ecuador) was an Ecuadorian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Archbishop of Quito, he was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII, the first Ecuadorian to be admitted to the College of Cardinals. After finishing his studies at the Conciliar Seminary in Quito, Carlos María moved to the prestigious Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he earned doctorates in theology and canon law. He was ordained a priest on 19 December 1896, served as Professor of dogmatic theology at the Seminary where he had been a student and was for a time pastor in Pelileo. Pope Pius X appointed him Bishop of Loja on 30 December 1911 and de la Torre worked as a parish priest throughout this period. Despite his unusually youthful appointment as a bishop, it took a long time for him to advance further: he was only transferred to the more important diocese of Guayaquil in 1926 and promoted to Archbishop of Quito at the age of fifty-eight in 1933. However, his ability was recognised eventually after World War II by Pope Pius XII in 1946 when he became Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, and gradually over the next decade his long period of service to the Church was recognised though his elevation to the cardinalate at the advanced age of seventy-eight in January 1953 (when he had already been a bishop for forty years). He was also decorated by the Spanish government with the Cruz of Alfonso X el Sabio at the same time and in the following years he began addressing the issue of extreme social inequality in Latin America and the problem of the evangelical inroads that were just beginning to emerge in Latin America. Cardinal de la Torre participated in the conclave of 1958 but his efforts to ameliorate social inequality in Latin America were rapidly defeated by his exceedingly advanced age. By 1962, his health was so poor that he could, at the age of eighty-nine, attend neither any of the sessions for Vatican II nor the 1963 conclave. He was the first cardinal not to attend a conclave for health reasons since José María Martín de Herrera y de la Iglesia and Giuseppe Antonio Ermenegildo Prisco in 1922. He also ordered the commencement of the cause of beatification and canonization of Gabriel García Moreno, President of Ecuador during the nineteenth century. Cardinal de la Torre died in 1968 at the age of 94 and was buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Quito. One of his major contributions to Ecuadorian education was his founding of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.

5. Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz (1912 - 2000)

With an HPI of 42.02, Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz is the 5th most famous Ecuadorean Religious Figure.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz (born 12 November 1912 in Cotacachi, Imbabura, Ecuador and died on 6 April 2000 in Quito Ecuador) was a Roman Catholic Cardinal.