Saint Rose of Lima

Saint Rose of Lima is the first canonized saint of the Americas, the seventeenth-century Peruvian Dominican tertiary and mystic whose ascetic life and visionary experiences made her the principal Catholic figure of colonial Latin America. Pope Clement X canonized her on April 12, 1671, fifty-four years after her death.

Early life in colonial Lima

Isabel Flores de Oliva was born on April 20, 1586, at Lima, the capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, the youngest of thirteen children of Gaspar Flores (a Spanish arquebusier of modest standing) and María de Oliva (an indigenous mestiza Peruvian). The family was of mixed European and Peruvian ancestry, a typical creole household in colonial Lima.

According to the traditional account, when Isabel was an infant her face appeared so beautiful and rose-like that the family servant nicknamed her "Rosa." The name stuck. Her mother formally renamed her Rose at her Confirmation, taking the saint name Rose of Viterbo as the heavenly patroness.

From an early age Rose practiced extreme asceticism. She slept on a bed of wooden planks scattered with stones, fasted three times a week on bread and water, wore a cilice (a hidden chain of iron rings worn under the clothes), and disfigured her own face deliberately so that no suitor would seek her in marriage. She rubbed her face with pepper and lye until it was permanently scarred; she shaved her head when her beauty drew unwanted attention. Her parents, who had hoped to arrange her marriage, were forced to abandon the project.¹

Vocation and Dominican tertiary profession

Rose desired to enter a religious community as a nun, but her family's poverty made the required dowry impossible. She read about Saint Catherine of Siena, the great fourteenth-century Italian Dominican tertiary (a layperson living under the Dominican spiritual rule without entering a convent), and decided to follow that model.

In 1606, at age twenty, Rose was admitted to the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She made her solemn profession in the Dominican habit on the Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena (April 30). She lived for the next eleven years in a small hut in the garden of her parents' home in Lima, dedicating her life to prayer, penance, and the manual work (embroidery, lace-making, growing flowers) by which she supported her impoverished family.

Mystical experiences and theological depth

Rose's interior life was marked by intense mystical experiences. She reported visions of the Christ Child, conversations with the Blessed Virgin Mary, encounters with Saint Catherine of Siena (whom she considered her spiritual sister and model), and prolonged moments of spiritual ecstasy.

Like many late-medieval and early-modern Catholic women mystics (Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Mary of the Incarnation), Rose's spiritual experiences provoked ecclesiastical investigation. The Inquisition at Lima examined her in 1614; the examining theologians concluded that her gifts were authentic.

Rose received many visitors at the small hut in her parents' garden: Catholic clergy seeking spiritual direction, families bringing their sick, indigenous and African Peruvians seeking material help (she ran a small clinic of charity from her hut, treating the sick with herbs grown in her garden). The Catholic communities of indigenous Peruvians, African slaves, and poor mestizos who knew Rose personally during her lifetime were the seed of her enduring veneration in Latin America.

Death and canonization

Rose's health, never strong from years of asceticism, collapsed in 1617. She lingered for several months in serious suffering, supported by the Dominican friars of Lima's Holy Rosary Convent and her own family. Her final illness produced extreme suffering, which she offered up in conformity to the Cross. She died at Lima on August 24, 1617, at thirty-one years of age. Her last words were reportedly the Hail Mary.

Her funeral drew the entire city of Lima. The Spanish viceroy, the archbishop, and dignitaries of every rank attended. The day after her death the population of Lima was so dense around her funeral procession that the Dominicans had to postpone the burial by several hours.

Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX on March 25, 1668, and canonized by Pope Clement X on April 12, 1671, fifty-four years after her death.

Patronage and devotion

Saint Rose of Lima was declared by Pope Clement X the principal patroness of the Americas, of the Philippines, of Peru specifically, and of the Indies (the colonial term encompassing both the Spanish Americas and the East). Pope Pius XII later named her patroness of Latin America, of indigenous peoples of the Americas, and of the entire West Indies.

She is also patron of gardeners (from her tending of her garden hut), of florists (from her name), and of embroiderers (her trade).

Her feast was celebrated for centuries on August 30 (the day of the principal Lima procession). In the 1969 Roman calendar reform, Pope Saint Paul VI moved her feast to August 23, two days before its traditional date, to allow universal recognition. It is celebrated as a Memorial in the universal Catholic Church and as a Solemnity in Peru, the Philippines, and several Latin American Catholic communities.

The Sanctuary of Saint Rose of Lima, built over her family home and the garden hut, is the principal Catholic pilgrimage site in Peru. Her relics are preserved at the Dominican Church of the Holy Rosary in Lima.

For the related Catholic women mystics, see Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa of Avila. For the indigenous Catholic saint of the Americas, see Saint Juan Diego. For the broader Marian context of colonial Catholic Latin America, see Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Sources

Footnotes

1. For the principal early biography, see Pedro de Loayza, Vida de Sancta Rosa de Sancta María (1619), composed by Rose's Dominican confessor within two years of her death. Modern critical biography: Frank Graziano, Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima (Oxford University Press, 2004). ↩