Saint Rose of Lima
A short biography by Miss Annette Davila, O.P.
Saint Rose of Lima, April 20, 1586 - August 24, 1617
Saint Rose of Lima was born on April 20, 1586 in Lima, Peru. She was the seventh of eleven children born to Gaspar Flores and Maria de Oliva. Her father was born in Spain and was in the calvary. He migrated from Puerto Rico to Lima in 1548. Her mother was of Spanish blood, also, but native-born in Lima. The future saint’s christened name was Isabel Flores de Oliva. She was exceptionally beautiful, even as a baby. It is believed that she was nicknamed “Rose” by a household servant, and she officially took that name at her confirmation in 1597.
From an early age, Rose wanted to become a nun. She displayed her great piety by adoring the Blessed Sacrament and receiving Communion daily, which was an extremely rare practice in that period. She took Catherine of Siena as her model and imitated many of the penances that Catherine inflicted on herself. She often prayed and fasted, and she exhibited her penchant for asceticism by performing secret penances, some of which were painful and severe. These included wearing a horse hair shirt and scourging herself several times a day. She fasted from meat and slept little (often only two hours a night) in order to have more time for prayer. She accomplished this by filling her mattress with broken pottery and tree roots and by using a piece of wood for a pillow, thus making her bed severely uncomfortable. Rose felt that, since Christ has suffered for us, she, too, would suffer to try to win more souls for Jesus and gain eternal life.
Her parents were strongly opposed to Rose becoming a nun or taking a vow of virginity since they wanted her to marry. The son of a wealthy family sought Rose and the marriage would have helped her family financially and socially, but Rose refused. Rose disliked her beauty since she didn’t want to be admired or praised. She wanted all admiration and praise to go to Jesus. To make herself less attractive to suitors, she masked her beauty by rubbing her face with pepper to make it blister and by cutting her hair short. She endured the ridicule of both parents and friends for her practices. But she had such a great love of God that, what seems bizarre to us and sometimes imprudent was simply a logical carrying out of her conviction that anything that might interfere with a loving relationship with God must be rooted out. Her delicate nature stood in sharp contrast to the sternness and unflinching courage of her spirit.
Vision of St. Rose of Lima
Our Lord revealed Himself to her frequently, often in the form of the Infant Jesus. She offered Him all her mortifications and penances in expiation for offences against him; for the idolatry of her country, Peru; for the conversion of sinners; and for the souls in Purgatory. Her family was greatly offended when she spoke of visions, revelations, visitations, and voices, however, an examination by priests and physicians resulted in the judgment that her experiences were, indeed, supernatural.
Ferdinand, one of her brothers, witnessed a strange occurrence in the Rosary Chapel in the Convent of St. Dominic. He and Rose stopped there one Sunday to beg Our Lady’s blessing on her desire to become a postulant in the Augustinian Convent of the Incarnation. Her prayer was strangely answered when she found herself incapable of rising from her knees, even with the help of her brother. Rose realized that this meant that it was God’s will for her to join the Dominican order instead. When she resolved to join that order, she was released and able to go home.
She was obedient to her parents and never became a nun, but when she was 20, her father relented and permitted her to join the Third Order of St. Dominic. She took her final vows a year later on August 10, 1607 and chose the name Rose of St. Mary. At that time, she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity. In those days, the habit was worn outwardly by tertiaries, whether living cloistered or not. The ceremony took place in the Rosary Chapel of the Convent of St. Dominic and was administered by Fr. Alonso Velasquez, her Dominican confessor. Rose’s brother, Ferdinand, built a small shelter of sticks and leaves in the family garden as a place for her to retreat in solitude and prayer. Rose was especially devoted to the Infant Jesus, His Blessed Mother, and St. Catherine of Siena. She continued her life of extreme prayer, fasting and penance and was known to wear a heavy silver crown with inward facing spikes to remind herself of Jesus’ suffering. Because of her many mystical gifts and visions, her little garden hermitage became the spiritual center of the city and she was visited there by many tertiary friends. She revealed several prophecies given to her by Jesus and St. Catherine of Siena. Rose was not, however, given the gift of writing about her spiritual experiences.
Painting of the Mystical Betrothal of St. Rose of Lima, by Nicolas Correa
When she was 24 years old, Rose went to Palm Sunday Mass at Saint Dominic’s. During that Mass, she had a vision of the Child Jesus who said to her: “Rose of My Heart, be thou My spouse.” She asked her brother, Ferdinand, to have a simple gold ring made for her. He said that she should have words inscribed on the ring and unknowingly suggested the exact same words that the Child Jesus said to her. The ring was ready in a few days and Rose asked Fr. Velasquez to place it in the Repository on Holy Thursday and give it to her when Jesus entered into his glory on Easter Sunday. She wore that ring the rest of her life.
At age 28, Rose resolved to live as a hermit. Since her small garden shelter was crumbling, she asked Ferdinand to build her a more permanent garden structure made of adobe bricks. Rose designed it to be 4' x 5' with a door so low that one had to crawl under it on hands and knees. She felt that this would discourage too many visitors. When it was completed, Rose took up residence in her hermitage.
Though she was largely a recluse, she spoke out fearlessly against the exploitation of the natives and the vice and corruption of their Spanish overlords. During the last few years of her life, Rose visited the sick in various hospitals and set up a room in her house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick through her own private resources and efforts. She, also, continued to work in her garden during the day and to sew at night. She sold the flowers she grew and the fine lace and embroidery she made to earn money to help with household expenses and for the poor and slaves.
One well-known miracle in Peru occurred on April 30, 1615 when Dutch pirates were anchored off the coast of Callao, only ten miles from Lima. The population of Lima entreated Rose to pray for deliverance from the pirates who were Calvinists and were set on exterminating Catholics and burning down their churches. Rose agreed but foretold that the ships would simply sail away without entering Callao or Lima. The city was gripped with fear none the less and the churches and confessionals were overflowing. But the next morning, there was great rejoicing when the pirates did, indeed, lift anchor and sail away as Rose foretold.
In ill health and at the insistence of Fr. Velasquez, Rose accepted the offer of friends, Don Gonzalez de Massa and his wife, Maria, to care for her. She continued to converse with Jesus and saints and to work miracles openly for both the poor and the distinguished. Even the prior of the Dominican Convent of St. Mary, Fr. Bartholomew Martinez, credited his cure from a grievous illness to Rose’s prayers.
It had been revealed to Rose that she would die at age 31 on the feast day of St. Bartholomew. That revelation came true when she died on August 24, 1617. Her final suffering began on July 31st and was likened to the suffering experienced by Jesus on the cross. She patiently experienced this suffering as well as many others for over three weeks. Rose received the Last Rites on the eve of St. Bartholomew’s feast and fell into an ecstasy after her last Communion. Upon her death, color returned to Rose’s cheeks and her countenance became as lovely as in her youth. Shortly afterward, several people had visions of Rose telling them that she had just entered Paradise.
Painting of the Funeral of St. Rose by Teofilo Castillo Guas (1857-1922)
Her funeral was a major event in Peru. It was held in the Convent of Saint Dominic in Lima, which is, also, known as the Convent of the Holy Rosary. Prominent men of the city took turns carrying her casket. The crowd was so great that her burial had to be postponed several days so the vast numbers of mourners could be accommodated. It was reported that there was a strong scent of roses and lilies about her casket and many miracles were effected for the mourners at her wake. Finally, she had to be buried in secret during siesta time. She was buried in the cloister of the Convent of St. Dominic in Lima, as she requested. Due to the large number of faithful requesting to visit her grave, however, her body was transferred to the church itself on March 19, 1619 and placed in a golden casket set in a niche near the main altar. This spot proved too small for the crowds which had to transverse the sanctuary to get to her grave, so her remains were moved again to the shrine of St. Catherine of Siena on the side of the main altar. The remains of two of her contemporaries, St. Martin de Porres and St. Juan Macias, are also incorporated into a side altar of the main Church. Her skull, surrounded with a crown of roses, is on public display at the Convent of Saint Dominic.
Pope Clement IX beatified Rose on May 10, 1667 and on April 12, 1671, Pope Clement X made her the first canonized saint in the Western Hemisphere. Her feast day is celebrated on August 23rd and she is, also, honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the USA Episcopal Church. Rose is known as the “Mystical Flower of the New World”. She is the patroness of the Americas, Peru, embroiderers, gardeners, florists, those who suffer ridicule for their piety, and people who suffer family problems. In Peru, she is also patroness of nurses and police (due to her prophecy of divine protection against the Dutch pirates). She is, also, co-patroness of the Philippines. The emblems that usually accompany her image are roses, an anchor, a city, and the infant Jesus.
What might have been dismissed as a merely eccentric life was transfigured by Rose’s love of God which was so ardent that it withstood ridicule, violent temptation and lengthy periods of sickness and desolation of the spirit. Rose, like her model, Catherine of Siena, and Sr. Faustina after her, understood the immeasurable value of redemptive suffering and the beauty of Divine Grace. Her practices may seem extreme to us, but we must remember that we are immersed in a culture of comfort, excess, and constant activity which inhibits our ability and time for reflection, prayer and meeting God in the solitude required to hear Him speak to us. We should look, however, to the universal spirit of heroic sanctity that motivated all of the saints - to live every moment for God. If we have a pure intention of always doing His will, we thus consecrate to Him all our time and everything that we do, and our works will be made fruitful.
