Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of La Loma in the Ecuadorian capital, Carlos María Javier de la Torre received his first education at the Colegio El Cebollar of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, having Brother Miguel Febres Cordero, future saint, among his teachers. Moving to the Colegio San Gabriel of the Jesuit Fathers for his secondary education, he entered the Conciliar Seminary, from where he was later sent to further his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning doctorates in theology and canon law. Ordained priest there in December 1896, back in Quito he served as chaplain of the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones, professor of dogmatic theology at the Conciliar Seminary, pastor in Pelileo for a short period, canon theologian of the metropolitan cathedral chapter, chancellor-secretary to Archbishop Federico González Suárez and pro-vicar general. Elected bishop of the diocese of Loja at the age of thirty eight, he received his episcopal consecration in Quito on May 26, 1912. Transferred to the diocese of Bolívar, present day Riobomba, on August 21, 1919, he was transferred again, on December 20, 1926, to the diocese of Guayaquil, while nearly a year after the death of Msgr. Manuel Pólit y Laso, was promoted his successor as archbishop of the metropolitan see of Quito on September 8, 1933. Named assistant at the Pontifical Throne on December 19, 1946, de la Torre was created cardinal priest in the consistory of January 12, 1953 by Pope Pius XII with the title of Santa Maria in Aquiro, becoming thus the first Ecuadorian Cardinal. Decorated by the Spanish government with the Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio, his promotion to the cardinalate was celebrated by the Ecuadorean government issuing a 30¢ postal stamp. Founder of the Catholic University of Ecuador, of the Catholic radio station of the capital and of the Catholic daily "La Unión", he was a member of the Ecuadorean Academy of the Language. Retiring from the pastoral government of his see in May 1967 when already ninety three years of age, the Cardinal died in July of the following year, being by that time, the oldest member of the Sacred College of Cardinals.