NEW SAINT FOR JESUITS

In  November of 2019, Jesuits were able to add another saint to their roster.  BLESSED VICTOR EMILIO MOSCOSO CARDENAS was born in 1846 in Cuenca, Ecuador,one of 14 children.

He studied law in college but felt drawn to the religious life, so abandoned his studies in order to join the Jesuits in 1864. He began his novitiate in Cuenca where the Jesuits had settled since the order was forced to leave Quito due to the anti-religious sentiment and persecution at the time. Father Moscoso studied in the San Luis college where he did his philosophical studies which he did well in.

Father Moscoso first began his duties as a priest and as a teacher in Riobamba  and would go on to teach both rhetoric and grammar. He was a noted philosopher and taught rhetoric and grammar to his students while serving as a professor. He also served as the college's rector from 1893 until his assassination. He later began teaching from 1892 at the San Felipe Neri college in Riobamba and from 1893 until his death served as its rector. 

He served as a teacher in the COPEM college in Riobamba since 1892 and it was there that he was slain during the Liberal Revolution which had started in 1895.

In 1895 the Liberal Revolution broke out in Ecuador which triggered a series of persecutions and a wave of anti-religious sentiment against religious and priests. His own assassination occurred in this context during an assault of liberal troopers in the Riobamba Jesuit house located near the college where he taught.

The soldiers, who were authorized to take priests as prisoners, broke down the door at 4:30am on 4 May 1897 and barged in and killed several people before coming across and breaking open the tabernacle. The men proceeded to throw the hosts to the ground and drank the wine mocking the sacraments before finding Father in a room kneeling before a Crucifix. They proceeded to kill him at point-blank range. He was shot twice.

The killers tried to transform the scene so that it appeared that the priest was armed and had been shot in combat; a rifle was placed near his corpse. His fellow Jesuits were unaware of the attack which lasted until 8:00am due to being in a separate area and therefore did not hear what was happening until much later. Blood was found running down his temples and over a purple scarf that he was wearing at the time.

Known for a  kind and generous personality, even one of his uncles said about him: “among all his brothers, he was distinguished by docility, moderation and delicacy of his character,” The Postulator to the Cause, Fr. Jose Benetiz, also commented on his character as being “serene, simple, kind, humble; he gave the impression of being shy; attentive and helpful; he always manifested true faithfulness to his obligations.”  These qualities then were his trademark throughout his life and would be evident in the difficult and tragic moments of his last days and antecedents to his martyrdom.