Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin (1962 Roman Calendar)

Saint Rose was born at Lima, in Peru, in the year 1586, and was given the name Isabel, though from her infancy she was called Rose for her beauty. From her earliest years she was drawn to God, and she set herself, after the example of Saint Catherine of Siena, to a hidden life of prayer, fasting, and severe penance. So earnest was her desire to belong wholly to Christ that she consecrated her virginity to Him and refused every offer of marriage, choosing rather to serve God alone in poverty and self-denial.

A hidden life of penance and charity

Living in her parents’ home, Saint Rose took the habit of the Third Order of Saint Dominic and made of a small hut in the garden a place of solitude and prayer. She practised penances of great severity, which the Church remembers with wonder rather than as a model to be imitated without the like grace; yet her austerity was joined to a tender charity. She laboured with her hands to help support her family and to relieve the poor, and she took into her home the sick, the aged, and the destitute, serving in them the person of Christ. In this she is honoured as a forerunner of organised works of mercy in her land.

Her interior life was marked by long and ardent prayer, by great trials and aridities patiently borne, and by a love of the Cross that made her embrace suffering for the love of her Saviour. The collect of her feast recalls that God, the Giver of all good things, willed that blessed Rose, watered early by the dew of heavenly grace, should blossom among the people of the Indies in the beauty of virginity and patience.

First flower of holiness in the Americas

Worn out by her labours and penances, Saint Rose died at Lima on the twenty-fourth of August in the year 1617, at the age of thirty-one. So great was the veneration of the people that her funeral became a triumph. She was canonised in the year 1671, the first native of the Americas to be raised to the honours of the altar, and was declared patroness of Peru, of the city of Lima, and of all South America and the Indies.

Her feast is kept on the thirtieth of August. In Saint Rose of Lima the Church honours the first flower of holiness to blossom in the New World, a virgin who in a hidden and lowly life loved God with all her heart, served the poor as she would serve Christ, and bore witness that sanctity may take root in every land and people.

The Collect

O almighty God, Giver of all good things, who didst will that blessed Rose, watered with the dew of heavenly grace, should blossom in the Indies with the beauty of virginity and patience: grant unto us Thy servants, that, hastening after the fragrance of her sweetness, we may be made worthy to become a good odour of Christ.

Bonórum ómnium largítor, omnípotens Deus, qui beátam Rosam, cœléstis grátiæ rore prævéntam, virginitátis et patiéntiæ decóre Indis floréscere voluísti: da nobis fámulis tuis; ut, in odórem suavitátis eius curréntes, Christi bonus odor éffici mereámur.

Patronage

She is venerated as the patroness of Peru, of the city of Lima, and of all South America and the Indies, and is invoked as the first canonised saint of the Americas.

In the Modern Calendar

In the modern calendar her memorial is observed on 23 August, the day nearest the anniversary of her death.

Common Questions

When is the feast of Saint Rose of Lima?

In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal her feast is kept on 30 August as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar her memorial is observed on 23 August.

Who was Saint Rose of Lima?

She was a virgin of Lima, in Peru, who lived from 1586 to 1617 and gave herself to a hidden life of prayer, penance, and charity to the poor as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Canonised in 1671, she was the first native of the Americas to be declared a saint.

Why is Saint Rose of Lima important?

She is venerated as the first flower of holiness in the New World and the first canonised saint of the Americas, and is the patroness of Peru and of South America. Her life shows that sanctity may take root in every land, and her charity to the sick and poor made her a model of mercy in her city.

See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.

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