Santa Rosa de Lima
Biography
He was born in Lima (Peru) on April 20, 1586. His parents were Gaspar de Flores and María de Oliva. She was baptized with the name of Isabel Flores de Oliva, but she was commonly called Rosa, since this was the name with which she was called by a person of Indian origin who was in charge of her upbringing. Said servant was able to perceive in her not only her external beauty, but her immense religiosity that would make her the first saint in Latin America. Rosa was definitely the name given to her in her Confirmation sacrament by the Archbishop of Lima, Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo.
From a very young age, Rosa was characterized by her physical beauty, receiving innumerable compliments for it. However, she overcame the temptation of self-esteem and her vanity, with humility, obedience and self-sacrifice of her will. But that exterior beauty was just a reflection of her enormous religiosity that she wanted to reserve for the Love of her loves, God. She also showed her immense piety and devotion to the Lord and her abiding vocation to help others.
Her fervent love for God was expressed in various penitential practices that she assumed from a young age. At ten years of age she was fasting on bread and water. She ate very little and she worried that her food would not taste good. In her sleep she was also very demanding with herself, since she placed logs in her bed and shavings and reeds on her pillow. She used silicons to mortify her fragile body. On a certain occasion, her mother crowned him with a garland of flowers to show it off to some of her visits and Rosa deliberately stuck one of the garland’s hairpins into her head, with the intention of doing penance for that vanity. . As people frequently praised her beauty, Rosa used to rub her skin with pepper to disfigure herself and not be the occasion of temptation for anyone. These penances can only be understood by knowing the great love that filled the interior of the Saint. All this was the expression of a heart that overflowed with piety for Christ.
Rosa’s father failed in the exploitation of a mine, and the family was plunged into very adverse economic circumstances. Rosa worked the whole day in the garden, she sewed part of the night and in this way she helped support the family. The saint was happy with her fate and she would never have wanted to change it, if her parents had not wanted to induce her to marry. Rosa fought against them for ten years and took a vow of virginity to confirm her resolution to live consecrated to the Lord.
She decided to become an Augustinian nun, but the day she went to kneel before the image of the Blessed Virgin to ask her to enlighten her on whether she should become a nun or not, she felt that she could not get up from the ground where she was kneeling. She called her brother to help her up but he wasn’t able to move her from there either. She then realized that God’s will was different and she told Our Lady: “Oh Celestial Mother, if God does not want me to go to a convent, I give up his idea from now on”. As soon as she uttered these words she was totally paralyzed and she was able to get up from the ground easily.
He kept asking God to show him which religious association he should join. And suddenly he began to arrive with her every day a black and white butterfly. And it fluttered past her eyes. With this she seemed to understand that she should look for an association that had a habit of black and white. And he discovered that they were the Dominican tertiaries, women who dressed in white tunics and black mantles and led a life as religious, but lived in their own homes. She asked to be admitted to the third order of Saint Dominic and they accepted her, thus imitating Saint Catherine of Siena. From then on, she practically secluded herself in a cabin that she had built in the orchard. She wore on her head a silver ribbon, the inside of which was full of spikes thus serving as a crown of thorns. Her love for her God was so ardent that, when she spoke of Him, she changed the tone of her voice and her face lit up as a reflection of the feeling that seized her soul. This phenomenon was manifested, above all, when the saint was in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or when in communion she united her heart to the Source of Love.
Jesus Christ appeared to him several times in the form of a child. Rosa spent the last three years of her life in the house of Don Gonzalo de Massa, from 1614 to 1617. Don Gonzalo was a wealthy government employee, and her wife, María de Uzategui, was very fond of Rosa. During the painful and long illness that preceded her death, the young woman’s prayer was: “Lord, increase my sufferings, but increase your love to the same extent.”
Rosa had a great devotion to Saint Bartholomew. In fact, since 1614, every year when the feast of Saint Bartholomew arrived, on August 24, she showed her great joy. And she explained the reason for this behavior: “It is that at a feast of Saint Bartholomew I will go forever to be close to my redeemer Jesus Christ.” And so it happened. On August 24, 1617, after terrible and painful agony, she expired with the joy of going to be forever with the beloved Savior. She was 31 years old.
And they gave this poor, uneducated girl an unusual funeral in the city of Lima. The first block of it carried her coffin the monsignors of the cathedral, as they did when an archbishop died. The second block was carried by the senators (or hearers), as they did when a viceroy died. And the third block was taken by the religious of the Communities, to show her great veneration. Her burial had to be postponed because huge crowds wanted to visit her corpse, and endless lines of worshipers passed in devout veneration in front of it. After her they buried her in one of the walls of the temple.
His body is currently venerated in the Dominican Basilica of Santo Domingo in Lima. She was beatified by Pope Clement IX and declared “Patron of Lima”. On April 12, 1671, she was canonized by Clemente X. That same year, she declared Saint Rosa de Lima as Patron Saint of the American continent and the Philippines. On September 10, 1958, the Holy Apostolic See declared her Patron Saint of Peruvian nurses.
His party is celebrated on August 23, although several countries, including Peru, celebrate it on August 30.
Prayer to Saint Rose of Lima
Santa Rosa, “Rosa y Reina del Perú”, on fire with love for God and faith, you withdrew from the world and gave yourself to Christ in the midst of admirable penance.
You wanted to be an apostle and lead all men to Jesus. For this you gave up your beauty and your human attractions, mortifying your body. Obtain for us the path of true life so that we may one day enjoy eternal goods.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Another prayer to Santa Rosa de Lima
O enlightened Virgin, heavenly Rose, who with the good smell of your virtues have filled the entire Church of God with fragrance and deserved in glory an unfading crown; We come to your protection so that you may obtain from your heavenly Spouse a heart detached from the vanities of the world and full of divine love.
Oh flower, the most beautiful and delicate that the American land has produced!, portent of grace and model of the souls who wish to closely follow the footsteps of the Divine Master, obtain for us the blessings of the Lord. Protect the Church, support good souls and remove from the Christian people the darkness of errors so that the light of Faith may always shine majestically and so that Jesus, our life, reigns in the intelligences of all men and admits us some day in his eternal and happy mansion. Amen.
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