Born of aristocratic parents on both sides of her family, her father was Jerónimo de Paredes Flores y Granobles, a nobleman of Toledo, and her mother was Mariana Jaramillo, a descendant of one of the leading conquistadors.

[1] Mariana was the youngest of eight children, and it is claimed her birth was accompanied by most unusual phenomena in the heavens, clearly connected with the child and juridically attested at the time of the process of her beatification.

Drawn to a spiritual life, her sister and brother-in-law allowed her to live in seclusion in their house, leading an ascetical lifestyle, similar to Rose of Lima to whom she is often compared.

The funeral sermon that the priest Alonso de Rojas preached emphasized her bodily mortification and renunciation of the flesh, and put her forward as a model for females in Quito to emulate.

[7] Paredes possessed an ecstatic gift of prayer and is said to have been able to predict the future, see distant events as if they were passing before her, read the secrets of hearts, cure diseases by a mere sign of the Cross or by sprinkling the sufferer with holy water, and at least once restored a dead person to life.

King Charles II of Spain took up the cause of their canonization, in an effort to promote the connection of native-born colonists in the Americas with the Spanish nation, as well as proving the faith of the colonial population.

The Sacred Congregation of Rites, having discussed and approved of this process, decided in favor of the formal introduction of the cause, and Pope Benedict XIV signed the commission for introducing the cause on December 17, 1757.

The process concerning the two miracles wrought through the intercession of this servant of God was subsequently prepared and was examined and accepted by the three congregations, and formally approved on January 11, 1817, by Pope Pius IX.

Peter Jan Beckx, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, petitioned the cardinal Costantino Patrizi Naro to order the publication of the Brief, and his request was granted.