In the square outside, a group of assassins waited impatiently for the president to emerge. Finally one of their number went into the cathedral to tell the president he was wanted in Parliament. Soon after, Moreno emerged and started across the square. Without warning, his murderers jumped on him from behind and struck him repeatedly over the head with a machete and other instruments. The president fell to the pavement, covered with blood. Loving hands carried his mangled body to the cathedral where, lying in a pool of blood on the sacristy floor, he received the last rites of the Church he had loved so ardently and had so fiercely defended. In his pocket, stained with his blood, they found the manuscript of his prepared speech. This manuscript is now enshrined in the Vatican. Moreno's last words were typical: "God does not die."
So he died the heroic Catholic leader of Ecuador. His death was the price he paid for daring to consecrate his country to the Sacred Heart.
Following Moreno's death, a revolution broke out. Twice attempts were made to burn the Sacred Heart painting. Providentially it was saved from the hands of enemies by members of Moreno's family and was entrusted for safekeeping to a Father of the Sacred Hearts from Chile who was then in Ecuador on vocational work. The picture was given in in trust to the provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Valparaiso.
Father Mateo Finds a Picture
Years later, young Father Mateo was helping his provincial arrange his archives. Going through a trunk, he came upon a rolled-up canvas. He spread it out and was struck by what he saw. The picture seemed to symbolize everything he was working for: The recognition of the sovereign rights of Jesus, the King, ruling over every phase of society by the power of His love, through His Heart.
Eagerly he asked his superior where the picture came from. In amazement and with a feeling that Garcia Moreno was handing over to him the standard of the King of Love to carry on the fight for the recognition of His rule over men and nations, he listened to the story. He asked if he might have the picture. The permission was granted on condition that he have it framed and that it be kept in the possession of the Sacred Hearts Fathers.
A friend, Senora Sara Vives Pomar, readily paid for the rich frame which
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