Rose of Lima,TOSD (bornIsabel Flores de Oliva; 20 April 1586 – 24 August 1617) (Latin:Rosa Limana,Spanish:Rosa de Lima), was a member of theThird Order of Saint Dominic inLima,Peru,Spanish Empire, who became known for both her life of severepenance[4] and her care of the poverty stricken of the city through her own private efforts.
Rose of Lima was born to a noble family and is the patroness saint of embroidery, gardening, and cultivation of blooming flowers. She was the first person born in theAmericas to becanonized as a saint.[1]
As a saint, Rose of Lima has been designated as a co-patroness of thePhilippines, along withPudentiana; both saints were moved to second-class patronage in September 1942 byPope Pius XII, but Rose remains the primary patroness of Peru and of the local people ofLatin America. Her image was formerly featured on thehighest-denomination banknote of Peru.
Frontispiece of Leonhard Hansen's Vita Mirabilis (Credit: Women of the Book Collection, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University)
She was born asIsabel Flores de Oliva in the city ofLima, then in theViceroyalty of Peru,Spanish Empire, on 20 April 1586. She was one of eleven children ofGaspar Flores [es], aharquebusier in the ImperialSpanish army whose family were fromBaños de Montemayor,Cáceres,Spain and later travelled toPuerto Rico.[5][6] His wife and Rose's mother, María de Oliva y Herrera (b. 1560), was acriolla native of Lima.[6] Her maternal grandparents were Francisco de Oliva and Isabel de Herrera. Rose's siblings (in birth order) were Gaspar, Bernardina, Hernando, Francisco, Juana, Antonio, Andrés, Francisco and Jacinta, all born in Lima.[6]
Plaque inBaños de Montemayor, Spain, dedicated to Gaspar Flores, the father of Rose of Lima
Her later nickname "Rose" comes from an incident in her infancy: a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose. In 1597 Isabel wasconfirmed by theArchbishop of Lima,Toribio de Mogrovejo, who was also to be declared a saint. She formally took the name of Rose (Rosa in Spanish) at that time.[4]
As a young girl, in emulation of the notedDominican tertiaryCatherine of Siena, she began tofast three times a week and performed severepenances in secret. When she was admired for her beauty, Rose cut off her hair and rubbed peppers on her face, upset that men were beginning to take notice of her.[7] She rejected all suitors against the objections of her friends and her family. Despite the censure of her parents, she spent many hours contemplating theBlessed Sacrament, which she received daily, an extremely rare practice in that period. She was determined to take avow ofvirginity, which was opposed by her parents who wished her to marry.[4] Finally, out of frustration, her father gave her a room to herself in the family home.
Stained glass window byHarry Clarke, located in St. Michael's Church,Ballinasloe, Ireland, depicting Saint Rose burning her hands in an act of penance
As an addition to fasting, she took permanentabstinence from eating meat. She helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her room and taking care of them. Rose sold her fine needlework and took flowers that she grew to market, to help her family. She made and sold lace and embroidery to care for the poor, and she prayed and did penance in a littlegrotto that she had built. Otherwise, she became arecluse, leaving her room only for her visits to church.[7]
She attracted the attention of thefriars of theDominican Order. She wanted to become anun, but her father forbade it, so she instead entered theThird Order of St. Dominic while living in her parents' home. In her twentieth year, she donned the habit of atertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity. She only allowed herself to sleep two hours a night at most so that she had more hours to devote to prayer.[8] She donned a heavy crown made of silver, with small spikes on the inside, in emulation of theCrown of Thorns worn byChrist.[7][failed verification]
For eleven years she lived this way, with intervals of ecstasy, and eventually died on 24 August 1617, at the young age of 31, after a long illness. It is said that she prophesied the date of her death. Her funeral was held in the cathedral, attended by all the public authorities of Lima. Her feast day is on the 23rd day of August (the 30th day of August in the Traditional calendar).
Rose wasbeatified byPope Clement IX on 10 May 1667, andcanonized on 12 April 1671, byPope Clement X, and was the first Catholic in theAmericas to be declared a saint.[1] Her shrine, alongside those of her friendsMartin de Porres andJohn Macias, is currently located inside of theconvent ofSaint Dominic in Lima. The Catholic Church says that many miracles followed her death: there were stories that she had cured a leper, and that, at the time of her death, the city of Lima smelled like roses; roses also started falling from the sky. Many places in the New World are named Santa Rosa after her.
Her liturgical feast was inserted into theGeneral Roman Calendar in 1729 for celebration initially on 30 August, because 24 August, the date of her death, is the feast of SaintBartholomew the Apostle and 30 August was the closest date not already allocated to a well-known saint.[9]Pope Paul VI's1969 revision of the calendar made 23 August available, the day on which herfeast day is now celebrated throughout the world, includingSpain, but excluding Peru and some other Latin American countries, where 30 August is apublic holiday in her honor.
Early lives of Rosa were written by the Dominican Father Hansen, "Vita Sanctae Rosae" (2 vols., Rome, 1664–1668),[10] and Vicente Orsini, afterward.Pope Benedict XIII wrote "Concentus Dominicano, Bononiensis ecclesia, in album Sanctorum Ludovici Bertrandi et Rosae de Sancta Maria, ordinero praedicatorum" (Venice, 1674).
There is a park named for her in downtownSacramento, California.[11] A plot of land at 7th and K streets was given to the Catholic Church byPeter Burnett, first Governor of the State ofCalifornia. Father Peter Anderson built one of the first of two churches in the diocese to beconsecrated under the patronage of St. Rose.[12]
In the Caribbean twin-island state ofTrinidad and Tobago, theSanta Rosa Carib Community, located inArima, is the largest organization of indigenous peoples on the island.[13] The second oldest parish in the Diocese ofPort of Spain is also named after this saint. The Santa Rosa Church, which is located in the town of Arima, was established on 20 April 1786, as the Indian Mission of Santa Rosa de Arima, on the foundations of aCapuchin Mission previously established in 1749.[14]
On the Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia there are two flower festivals supported by their Societies. Each society has a patron saint on whose feast day the grande fete is celebrated. For the Roses it is the feast of St. Rose of Lima on 30 August; and for the Marguerites it is that of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 17 October.[15]
Rose's skull, surmounted with a crown of roses, is on public display at the Basilica in Lima, Peru, along with that of Martin de Porres. It was customary to keep the torso in the basilica and pass the head around the country.
She is also commemorated on 24 August in some places.[16]
On the last weekend in August, the Fiesta de Santa Rosa is celebrated inDixon, New Mexico, and the Sint Rosa Festival inSittard, Netherlands. Also, inSibbe, Netherlands, a maypole dedicated to Saint Rose is erected on the first Saturday after 23 August by the localJonkheid.
^abcdeMarques, Luis Carlos L. (2000). "Rose de Lima". In Leonardi, C.; Riccardi, A.; Zarri, G. (eds.).Diccionario de los santos (in Spanish). Vol. II. Madrid, Spain: San Pablo. pp. 2003–2006.ISBN84-285-2259-6.
^abClement X, Pope (11 August 1670). "BullSacrosancti Apostolatus Cura".§ 3: Bullarium Romanum, 26VII, 42.(Latin text) declaram, &principaliorem Patronam omnium, & singularum Provinciarum, Regnorum, Insularum, & Regionaum Terrae firmae totius Americae, Phillipinarum, & Indiarum, cum eisdem praerogativis dicta autoritate tenore praefentium eligimus pariter, & declaramus (translation) "...I, Clement, (..) proclaim Blessed Rosa de Santa Maria as the principal patroness of each and every province, country, island and area of the entire land of the Americas, the Philippines and the Indies, with the same prerogatives of the designated authority, we declare."
Luis Getino, O.P.Santa Rosa de Lima, patrona de América: su retrato corporal y su talla intelectual según nuevos documentos. Madrid: M. Aguilar 1943.
Teodoro Hampe Martínez. "Santa Rosa de Lima y la identidad criolla en el Perú colonial" (essay of interpretation),Revista de Historia de América, No. 121 (January – December, 1996), pp. 7–26
Leonardo Hansen,Vida admirable de Santa Rosa de Lima, translated by Fr. Jacinto Parra. Lima: Centro Católico 1895.
Fernando Iwasaki Canti. "Mujeres borde de la perfección: Rosa de Santa María y las alumbradas de Lima," Hispanic American Historical Review 73, no. 4 (1993):581–613.
Pedro de Loayza, O.P.Vida ad Santa Rosa de Lima (1619) Reprint, Lima: Iberia, S.A. 1965.
Ronald J. Morgan, "Heretics by Sea, Pagans by Land: St. Rosa de Lima and the Limits of Criollismo in Colonial Peru", chapter 4 ofSpanish American Saints and the Rhetoric of Identity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press 2002, pp. 67–97.
Tomás Polvorosa López, "La canonización de Santa Rosa de Lima a través delBullarium Ordinis F.F. Pratedictorum" inActas del I Congreso Internacional sobre los Dominicos y el Nuevo Mundo, pp. 603–639. Madrid: Editorial DEIMoS 1987.
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