Saint Rose of Lima

She was born Isabel Flores de Oliva in Lima on 20 April 1586, to Gaspar Flores and María de Oliva, in a family of Spanish origin and some standing. The name by which the world knows her came from a story told in the family. When she was a baby of a few months, passersby are said to have seen her face turn into a blooming rose as she slept in her cradle, and her mother would call her nothing else. As a girl she worried that the name might feed her vanity, and she is said to have complained of it before a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary, who appeared to her and reassured her. In 1597 she was confirmed by Archbishop Toribio de Mogrovejo, himself later declared a saint, and formally took the name Rose.

Catherine of Siena was her model. As a young girl Rose fasted several days a week and practiced penances in secret. When people admired her beauty, she cut off her hair and rubbed pepper on her face, and she turned away every suitor despite the objections of her family and friends. She spent long hours before the Blessed Sacrament and received communion daily, which was very unusual at the time. When her family's fortunes collapsed, she rolled up her sleeves and took on household work to help.

At twenty she put on the habit of the Dominican Third Order. She had longed for the cloister but remained a virgin living in the world. In 1609 she shut herself into a cell of barely two square meters, built in the garden of her mother's house, and left it only for religious services. There she passed most of her days in prayer. She also set up a place in the house for the needy, where she looked after abandoned children and old people, especially those of Indigenous origin.

Devotion to Mary marked her prayer. She once imagined making garments for Our Lady out of prayers and sacrifices, counting hundreds of Hail Marys and Salve Reginas, rosaries, and days of fasting into each piece, from the gown to the veil and necklace.

Rose died in Lima on 24 August 1617, still a young woman. Pope Clement IX beatified her in the late 1660s, and Pope Clement X canonized her in 1671. She is the chief patron of Peru and is honored across Latin America as the saint of the Indigenous peoples she wished to see come to faith. Gardeners, florists, and embroiderers also look to her.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.