St. Rose of Lima: The First Flower of the New World’s Sanctity
Feast Day: August 23 | Patron of the Americas, Peru, the Philippines, Embroiderers, Florists, and Gardeners
Birth and the Gift of a Name
Rose was born on April 20, 1586, of a Spaniard, Gaspar de Flores, and Maria d’Olivia, a woman who had Inca blood in her veins. Named Isabel Flores de Oliva, she was the seventh of eleven children. She was nicknamed “Rose” when one of the family servants said she saw the infant’s face transform into a rose. At her confirmation in 1597, she took the name of Rose officially.
Both parents were devout Catholics who instilled a deep faith in their children. Yet even among a devout household, Rose burned with a singular flame that surpassed all around her.
A Soul Set Apart from Birth
As a child she was remarkable for a great reverence and pronounced love for all things relating to God — so much so that her life was given up to prayer and mortification. She had an intense devotion to the Infant Jesus and His Blessed Mother, before whose altar she spent hours.
Rose had a fresh, lovely complexion, and she was worried by the thought that her name had been given as a tribute to her beauty. So sensitive was her conscience that she had genuine scruples over bearing it, and on one occasion, after hearing someone praise her comeliness, she rubbed pepper into her face to mar it.
This was not vanity in reverse — it was the burning logic of a soul who wanted no creature’s gaze to rest on her except the gaze of God.
The Battle at Home
Ten years of struggle against her parents began when they tried to make Rose marry. They refused to let her enter a convent, and out of obedience she continued her life of penance and solitude at home as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic.
When Rose’s parents fell into financial trouble, she worked in the garden all day and sewed at night. She was skilled in needlework and sold her fine lace and embroidery and the flowers she grew in her garden to help her family and to raise funds for the poor.
The domestic hearth was her cloister. The needle was her instrument of both charity and contemplation.
The Life of Penance
In her twentieth year she received the habit of St. Dominic. 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.
She was known to wear a heavy silver crown with spikes that could pierce her flesh. The spikes reminded her of the Crown of Thorns. At one point, one of the spikes became so lodged in her skull that the crown was removed with great difficulty.
She practiced fasting, slept only a few hours a night on a bed of potsherds, self-flagellated, and experienced numerous visions, particularly of the devil.
Our Lord revealed Himself to her frequently, flooding her soul with peace and joy.
This is the paradox of the mystical life: the more the soul empties itself of comfort, the more it is filled with God.
Charity Poured Out
Though she lived as a recluse, Rose was never indifferent to the suffering world around her. During the last few years of her life, Rose set up a room in the house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick — a beginning of social services in Peru.
Though largely a recluse, Rosa was devoted to the sick and hungry in her community and often brought them to her hut to care for them.
This is the Dominican charism made flesh in a woman: contemplata aliis tradere — the fruits of contemplation poured out in service.
Miracles and the Supernatural Life
Though secluded in life and activity, she was brought to the attention of Inquisition interrogators, who could only say that she was influenced by grace.
Many miracles of healing have been attributed to St. Rose’s intercession. She is said to have cured people of leprosy and other illnesses. She also saved Lima, Peru, when Dutch pirates invaded the city in 1615.
Her devotees believe that she was a recipient of stigmata, the wounds of Christ.
Death and the City in Mourning
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.” These words are the key that unlocks her entire life.
This remarkable woman died on August 25, 1617, at the age of thirty-one. 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.
One legend states that after her death, all of Lima smelled of roses that fell from the sky.
Canonization and Lasting Glory
St. Rose of Lima was the first person born in the Western Hemisphere to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. She was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Rose of Lima is the patron of Peru, South America, and the Philippines.
What Her Life Says to Ours
If we remember some unusual penances, we should also remember the greatest thing about Rose of Lima: a love of God so ardent that it withstood ridicule from without, violent temptation, and lengthy periods of sickness.
Penance is good, but it takes great holiness to discover this mysterious and deep truth. The “good life” is not one that is filled with worldly successes, riches, or honors, but is discovered only in an act of divine union.
St. Rose did not seek suffering for its own sake — she sought union with the crucified Christ, and the Cross was simply the path He had walked before her. She shows the Church that holiness is not reserved for the cloister or the martyrdom of blood — it can bloom in a backyard garden, in a needle and thread, in a cup of soup given to a hungry child.
St. Rose of Lima, pray for us.