About St. Rose of Lima

St. Rose of Lima was born in Lima, Peru of parents Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier from San German, Puerto Rico and Maria de Olivia, who is a native of Lima. She was Christened as Isabel, but was nicknamed “Rose”.  Their servant claimed to have seen her face transformed into a rose when she was still a child. She was then called Rose since then. 

As a young girl, she begun to fast three times a week and performs severe penances in secret emulating St. Catherine. Many admired her beauty, but Rose cut-off her hair to discourage would be suitors, against the objections of her family and friends. Despite censure by her parents, she spent many hours contemplating the blessed sacrament, which she receives daily and took a vow of virginity by herself.  Her daily fasting later turned into perpetual abstinence from meat.  Out of frustration, her father gave her a room alone by herself.  Instead, she brings sick people to her room and take care of them.  

To help her family and support her charitable works taking care of the poor, she produces beautifully woven fine needlework and grows flowers which she sells in the market. Her nights are devoted to prayers and penance in a little grotto she built at her room and leaves only to attend mass and visit the church.  Her works became so widespread in the city, which caught the attention of the friars of the Dominican Order. 

She actually wanted to become a nun, but her father won’t allow her.  In order not to disobey her father, she instead joined the Third Order of Dominique and remained isolated in her room.  At twenty, she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity.  For eleven years, she continued her work without much rest until she died on August 24, 1717 at the age of 31.  She prophesied the exact age of her death.  Her funeral was held in the cathedral, attended by all the public authorities in Lima. It was the archbishop himself who gave the eulogy during the rites.

Veneration, Convent of Santa Rosa in the 17^th century, Lima

Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX on April 15, 1667, and canonized on April 12, 1671 by Pope Clemen X. She was the first Catholic in South America to be declared Saint.  A shrine was built in her honor alongside with her friends, St. Martin de Porres and St. John Macias at the convent of St. Dominic in Lima.  The Roman Catholic documented many miracles that followed after her death. There were stories that she cured a leper.  Many places worldwide were then named Santa Rosa and many faithful pays homage to her as Saint. Pope Benedict XVI was her devotee.

Saint Rose’ liturgical feast was inserted into Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1729 for celebration initially on August 30, because August 24, the Anniversary day of her death, is the feast of Saint Bartolomew the Apostle and August 30 was the closest date not already occupied by a well-known saint.  Pope Paul VI’s 1969 reform of the Roman Catholic Calendar of saints made August 23 available as her feast day, which is now celebrated throughout the world, including Spain, but excluding Peru and some other Latin American countries, where August 30 was declared a public holiday in her honor.  She is honored together with Martin de Porres and Toribio de Monrovejo with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on August 23.

Saint Rose is the patroness of native Indian people of the Americas and their beneficence, of gardeners, of florists, of Lima, of Peru and of Sittard, the Netherlands, of India, of people misunderstood for their piety and of the resolution of family quarrels.

Early life of Santa Rosa was written by the Dominican Father Hansen, “Vita Santae Rosae” (2 vols., Rome, 1661-1668), and Vicente Orsini, afterward. Pope Benedict XIII wrote “Concentus Dominicano, Nononiencis Ecclesia, in album Sanctorum Ludovici Bertrandiet Rosae de Sancta Maria, ordineropraedicatorum” (Venice 1674).

Postage stamp, Peru, 1936

There is a park named in her honor in downtown Sacramento, California.  A plot of land at 7^th and K streets was given to the Roman Catholic Church in her honor by Peter Burnett, first governor of the State of California. Father Peter Anderson built one of the first of two churches in the diocese to be consecrated in honor of St. Rose.

In the Caribbean, twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago, the Santa Rosa Caribbean Community, located in Arima, is the largest organization of indigenous people on the island.  The second eldest parish in the Diocese in Port of Spain, is also named after her.  The Santa Rosa Church, which is located in the town of Arima, was established on April 20, 1786 as the Indian Mission of Santa Rosa de Arima by the foundations of a Capuchin Mission previously established in 1749.

The public may see the cranium of Santa Rosa, in the Basilica in Lima, Peru. It was customary to keep the torso in the Basilica and pass the cranium around the country, inviting all to venerate and gaze.  She has a crown of roses on her cranium.  She is also displayed with San Martin de Porres, who also has the cranium separate from his torso.  On the last weekend in August, the Fiesta de Santa Rosa in celebrated in Dixon, Mexico.