Rolando “Ito” Muñoz Cedeño

His life

A humble young man from Azuero

Rolando Muñoz Cedeño, affectionately known as “Ito”, was born into a humble family of the Azuero region: his family lived in La Palma and later in the La Ermita neighborhood of Las Tablas, province of Los Santos, where they moved in August 1986.

That same year his life changed forever. As the book Más Allá del Sol recounts, the Blessed Virgin Mary manifested herself in him, and he received the spiritual name Elías Epifanía. In his visions appeared a valley with precise signs — a hill, a leaning tree, a small church — which his brother Ronald would later help to find: the Valley of the Half Moon, in Portobelo, Colón.

On December 12, 1986 he received the message of the chosen place, and on March 20, 1987 thousands of people arrived at the first great Encounter in the valley. Ito also carried the cross of misunderstanding: there were those who insulted him and called him a false prophet. He answered with silence and meekness.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

Ito departed to the Father’s house at a very young age (R.I.P.). His funeral gathered the devotees who had accompanied him, and his legacy kept growing: the valley, the temple, the prayer group and the teachings that continued after him. His brother Ronald “Rony” Muñoz gathered the whole story in the book Más Allá del Sol — a revealed truth, dedicated to his memory and to that of their parents, Rolando and Alicia.

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