Saint Rose of Lima

From New World Encyclopedia


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), was the first person born in the Americas to be canonized as a Catholic saint. Born in in Lima, Peru in 1586, she took the name of Rose at her confirmation in 1597. 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. At a young age, she gave her life to prayer and mortification, practicing such acts as would turn her attention unfailingly to God.

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 relatives, and the censure of her parents. Daily reception of the Eucharist consoled her.

Finally she determined to take a vow of virginity and become a nun. This presented still more trials and difficulties to Rose, as she had to combat the opposition of her parents, who wished her to marry. After ten years, she won their 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 adviser, moved permanently into a small grotto built in her parent's garden where she had often spent nights in prayer.

She increased her mortifications and sacrifices, and continued to work to support the family and serve the poor in whatever way she could find. For 14 years this sacrifice of her body continued without relaxation, but not without consolation. Many miracles followed her death in 1617. She was beatified by Clement IX, in 1667, and canonized in 1671 by Clement X, the first American to be so honored. Her feast is celebrated August 23, and 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. Fom a large family, her father, Gaspar Flores, was a Spanish soldier and her mother, Maria de Oliva, had Inca and Spanish blood. Rose was normally obedient to her parents, although not always in matters regarding her spirituality. She took the name of Rose at her confirmation in 1597.

Rose worked hard, both at her studies and at her domestic work. In emulation of St. Catherine of Siena, whom she admired, Rose fasted three times a week. When she was complemented by others on account of her beauty, Rose cut off her hair against the objections of her friends and her family. When her parents censured her for this act, Rose disfigured her face with pepper and lye.

Her parents deplored her penitential practices more than ever, and she in turn began to tell of visions, revelations, visitations, and voices from heaven. She spent many hours contemplating the mystery of the Eucharist which she received daily. Rose determined to take a vow of virginity, once again in opposition to her parents, who wished her to marry. This reportedly cause her excruciating mental agony and desolation of spirit, motivating her to even more frequent mortifications.

Daily fasting turned to perpetual abstinence from meat. Her days were filled with acts of charity and industry. Rose helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her home and taking care of them. She sold her fine needlework and grew beautiful flowers, taking them to sell in 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 Eucharist.

In her twentieth year, she Dominican Order 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.

During the many years Rose lived virtually as a recluse, she used a little hut in the family garden as an oratory. She often wore on her head a circlet of silver studded on the inside with sharp points, in memory of the Lord's crown of thorns. Other forms of penitence which she inflicted on her body were floggings, administered three times daily; the wearing of a hair shirt; and the dragging of a heavy, wooden cross about the garden. She rubbed her lips with gall and often chewed bitter herbs to deaden the sense of taste. Both eating and sleeping were reduced to a minimum. Naturally her health was affected, but the physical disorders which resulted from this regime—stomach ailments, asthma, rheumatism, and fevers—were suffered uncomplainingly.

This manner of life offended her family, who preferred their daughter to follow the more conventional and accepted ways of holiness. Finally, when Rose began to tell of visions, revelations, visitations, and voices, they deplored her penitential practices more than ever. She endured their disapproval and grew in spiritual fortitude.

In spite of the rigors of her ascetic life, Rose was not wholly detached from happenings around her, and her awareness of the suffering of others often led her to protest against some of the practices of the Spanish overlords. In the New World, the discovery of unbelievable mineral resources was doing little to enrich or ennoble the lives of the Peruvian natives. The gold and silver from this land of El Dorado was being shipped back to strengthen the empire and embellish the palaces and cathedrals of Old Spain, but at its source there was vice, exploitation, and corruption.

The natives were oppressed and impoverished, in spite of the missionaries' efforts to alleviate their miseries and to exercise a restraining hand on the governing class. Rose was cognizant of the evils, and spoke out against them fearlessly.

For 15 years, Rose bore the disapproval and persecution of those close to her, as well as the more severe trial of desolation of soul. In time, an examination by priests and physicians was indicated, and this resulted in the judgment that her experiences were indeed supernatural. Rose's last years were passed in the home of a government official, Don Gonzalo de Massa. During an illness towards the end of her life, she was able to pray, "Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Thy love in my heart." This remarkable woman died on August 25, 1617, at the age of 31.

Not until after her death was it known how widely her beneficent influence had extended, and how deeply venerated she was by the common people of Lima. When her body was borne down the street to the cathedral, a great cry of mourning arose from the crowd. For several days it was impossible to perform the ritual of burial on account of the great press of sorrowing citizens around her bier. She was finally laid to rest in the Dominican convent at Lima. Later, when miracles and cures were being attributed to her intervention, the body was transferred to the church of San Domingo. There it reposes today in a special chapel.

Legacy

Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX in 1667, and canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X as the first individual 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, while all the places named Santa Rosa in the New World pay homage to this saint. Pope Benedict XVI has a special devotion for her.

The liturgical feast of Saint Rose was celebrated initially on August 30, because August 24 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 August 23, except in Peru and other Latin American countries where her feast is kept as a public holiday on the traditional date of August 30.

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

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

Early Lives of Santa Rosa were written by the Dominican Father Hansen, Vita Sanctae Rosae (two 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).

There is a park named after her, in downtown Sacramento. 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.


References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Faber, Father Frederick William. The Life of Saint Rose of Lima, Kenedy, 1925. ASIN B000KIGNY4
  • Graziano, Frank. Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marraige of Saint Rose of Lima, Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0195136401
  • Maliakal, Callistus. Darling of Lima: The Story of Saint Rose, Ukran Printers, 1972. ASIN B0007BZZD4
  • Windeatt, Mary Fabyan. Angel of the Andes: The Story of Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Anthony Guild Press, 1943. ASIN B0007EOOMY

Sources and external links

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