Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/August 23 2007
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Saint Rose of Lima, (20 April 1586 - 24 August 1617), the first Catholic saint of The Americas, was born in Lima, Peru.
St. Rose was born April 20, 1586 in the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. She received the baptismal name Isabel Flores de Oliva. She was from a large family. Her father, Gaspar Flores, was a Spanish soldier and her mother, Maria de Oliva, had Inca and Spanish blood.
As a child she was possessed with a deep veneration for every aspect of religion and spent hours with her attention fixed upon the image of the Madonna and Child. She gave her entire life to prayer and the most extreme self-mortification.
In emulation of St. Catherine of Siena she fasted three times a week with secret severe penances. Rose began to tell of visions, revelations, visitations and voices as her parents deplored her penitential practices more than ever. Many hours were spent contemplating the Blessed Sacrament which she received daily. Daily fasting turned to perpetual abstinence from meat. Her days were filled with acts of charity and industry.
She took the name of Rose at her confirmation in 1597. In her twentieth year she had so attracted the attention of the Dominican Order that she was permitted to enter a Dominican convent in 1602 without payment of the usual dowry. She donned the habit and took a vow of perpetual virginity. "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. Days passed without food, save a draught of gall mixed with bitter herbs. When she could no longer stand, she sought repose on a bed constructed by herself, of broken glass, stone, potsherds, and thorns. Fourteen years this self-martyrdom continued without relaxation, with intervals of ecstasy (CE) until she died, August 24, 1617 at the age of 31. Her funeral was attended by all the public authorities of Lima, and the archbishop pronounced her eulogy in the cathedral, August 26, 1617.
Attributes: rose, anchor, Infant Jesus
Patronage: embroiderers; gardeners; India; Latin America; people ridiculed for their piety; Peru; Philippines; Santa Rosa, California; against vanity; Peruvian Police Force
Prayer:
