Saint Rose of Lima

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Saint Rose of Lima
Sta Rosa de Lima por Claudio Coello.jpg

First Saint from the Americas
Born April 20, 1586 in Lima, Peru
Died August 23, 1617
Beatified 1667

by Pope Clement IX

Canonized 1671, Pope Clement X
Major shrine convent of Santo Domingo in Lima, Peru
Feast August 23 (August 30 in Peru)
Attributes rose, anchor, Infant Jesus
Patronage embroiderers; gardeners; India; Latin America; people ridiculed for their piety; Peru; Philippines; Santa Rosa, California; against vanity; Peruvian Police Force

Saint Rose of Lima, (April 20, 1586 – August 24, 1617), the first Catholic saint to be canonised in the Americas was born in 1586, in Lima, Peru. At the saint's confirmation in 1597 at the age of eleven, she took the name of Rose, because as an infant her face had been seen transformed by a mystical rose, and her red cheeks and beauty earned her the name Rose from an early age.

As a child she had a great reverence and pronounced love for God and all things relating to HIm. She was especially devoted to the Infant Jesus and His Blessed Mother before whose altar she spent hours. At a young age, she gave her life to prayer and mortification, practicing such acts as would turn her attention unfailingly to God. She was always obedient to her parents and worked hard, both at her studies and at her domestic work. She was especially skilled with her needle and eventually helped support the family by growing flowers and needlework.

When she read a biography of Saint Catherine she was inspired to take that saint as her model. She began by fasting three times a week.Then she added secret severe penances, and finally cut off her hair, adopted coarse clothing, and roughened her hands with toil. All this time she had to struggle against the objections of her friends, the ridicule of her family, and the censure of her parents. Daily reception of the Blessed Sacrament consoled her.

Finally she determined to take a vow of virginity. This presented still more trials and difficulties to the saint. She had to combat the opposition of her parents, who wished her to marry. She had to resist temptations which assaulted her faith, purity and patience. She endured long periods of desolation of spirit, which caused her to doubt her every decision. After ten long years, she won her parent's permission to remain unmarried, and to become a Dominican Tertiary. In her twentieth year she received the habit of Saint Dominic and upon the permission of her spiritual advisor, moved permentantly into a small grotto built in her parent's garden where she had often spent nights in prayer.

She increased her mortifications and sacrifices, continued to work to support the family and serve the poor in whatever way she could find. For fourteen years this martyrdom of her body continued without relaxation, but not without consolation. Our Lord revealed Himself to her frequently. At these times she offered to Him all her mortifications and penances in expiation for offences against Him, for the idolatry of her country, for the conversion of sinners, and for the souls in Purgatory. Many miracles followed her death.

She was beatified by Clement IX, in 1667, and canonized in 1671 by Clement X, the first American to be so honoured. Her feast is celebrated 23 August. She is represented wearing a crown of roses.

Biography

St. Rose was born April 20 1586, in the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. She received the baptismal name Isabel Flores de Oliva. She was from a large family. Her father, Gaspar Flores, was a Spanish soldier and her mother, Maria de Oliva, had Inca and Spanish blood.

In emulation of St. Catherine of Siena she fasted three times a week with secret severe penances. When she was admired, St. Rose cut off her hair against the objections of her friends and her family. Upon the censure of her parents, St. Rose disfigured her face with pepper and lye. She was very upset that she was so beautiful and hurt herself to help others.

Rose began to tell of visions, revelations, visitations and voices as her parents deplored her penitential practices more than ever.

Many hours were spent contemplating the Blessed Sacrament which she received daily. She determined to take a vow of virginity in opposition to her parents who wished her to marry. Her Vita emphasizes "her excruciating agony of mind and desolation of spirit, urging her to more frequent mortifications."

Daily fasting turned to perpetual abstinence from meat. Her days were filled with acts of charity and industry. St. Rose helped the sick and hungry around her community. She would bring them to her home and take care of them. St. Rose sold her fine needlework, grew beautiful flowers and would take them to market to help her family. Her exquisite lace and embroidery helped to support her home, while her nights were devoted to prayer and penance in a little grotto which she had built. She became a recluse leaving the grotto only for her visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

She took the name of Rose at her confirmation in 1597. In her twentieth year she had so attracted the attention of the Dominican Order that she was permitted to enter a Dominican convent in 1602 without payment of the usual dowry. She donned the habit and took a vow of perpetual virginity. "Thereafter she redoubled the severity and variety of her penances to a heroic degree, wearing constantly a metal spiked crown, concealed by roses, and an iron chain about her waist. Days passed without food, save a draught of gall mixed with bitter herbs. When she could no longer stand, she sought repose on a bed constructed by herself, of broken glass, stone, potsherds, and thorns. She admitted that the thought of lying down on it made her tremble with dread."

For fourteen years this self-martyrdom continued without relaxation, with intervals of ecstasy (CE) until she died, at the age of 31. Her funeral was attended by all the public authorities of Lima, and the archbishop pronounced her eulogy in the cathedral,

Legacy

St. Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX in 1667, and canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X as the first Catholic in the western hemisphere to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Her shrine, alongside those of her friend St. Martin de Porres and Alonso Abad, is located inside the convent of Santo Domingo in Lima, Peru. The Roman Catholic Church says that many miracles followed her death. All the places named Santa Rosa in the New World pay homage to this saint. Pope Benedict XVI has a special devotion for this saint.

Her liturgical feast was celebrated initially on 30 August, because 24 August was the feast of the apostle Bartholomew but the calendar reform of Vatican II moved her feast day closer to the anniversary of her death. She is now remembered liturgically on 23 August, except in Peru and other Latin American countries where her feast is kept as a public holiday on the traditional date of August 30.

She is the patroness of Lima, Peru, the Americas and the Philippines, and the city of Sittard, in the Netherlands. In addition to this, she is also the patron saint of the city of Santa Rosa, California in the United States which literally means St. Rose in Spanish.

Early Lives of Santa Rosa were written by the Dominican Father Hansen, Vita Sanctae Rosae (2 vols., Rome, 1664–1668), and Vicente Orsini, afterward Pope Benedict XIII wrote Concentus Dominicano, Bononiensis ecclesia, in album Sanctorum Ludovici Bertrandi et Rosae de Sancta Maria, ordinero praedicatorum, Venice, 1674).

She is depicted wearing a metal-spiked crown, concealed by roses, and an iron chain around her waist. [1]

There is a park named after her, in downtown Sacramento. [2] A plot of land at 7th and K streets was given to the Roman Catholic Church by the honorable Peter Burnett, first governor of the State of California. The reverend Father Peter Anderson would build one of the first of two churches in the diocese to be consecrated in honor of Saint Rose of Lima.[3]

Notes

  1. http://www.sooke.org/roseoflima/image/stroseoflima.jpg
  2. http://www.downtownsac.org/?mvcTask=merchants&id=581 (See Downtown Sacramento Partnership site.)
  3. [1] History of the Sacramento Diocese, second paragraph

References
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Sources and external links

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