CrucisSt. Rose of Lima
St. Rose of Lima was born Isabel Flores de Oliva on 20 April 1586 at Lima, in the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru, and died there on 24 August 1617. Called 'Rose' for her beauty, she resolved from an early age to consecrate her virginity to Christ, resisting pressure to marry and taking St. Catherine of Siena as her model. She became a Dominican tertiary, living in a small hut in her family's garden and supporting her household by her needlework and by selling flowers.
She embraced a life of intense prayer, severe penance, and hidden mystical experience, while also caring for the sick, the poor, the enslaved, and the indigenous in her home — an early foreshadowing of organized social care in Peru. Her extraordinary austerities and her love of God and neighbor made her revered even in her short life. Canonized in 1671, she was the first person born in the Americas to be declared a saint, and is honored as the patroness of Peru, of Latin America, and of the Philippines.
Selected quotes
“Pour out your life in silence before God, and he will fill it with his own sweetness.”
“Hide your good works from the world, that God alone may be their witness and reward.”
“Bear patiently the wounds of the heart, for the Beloved heals them with his presence.”