Today marks the feastday of St. Rose of Lima. After Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Rose is “the secondary patron” of all of the Americas.
She was not a “doer” of things in the grand sense of a Saint Dominic, who founded an Order, or Saint Catherine of Siena, who influenced popes. Most of what St. Rose did was done on a much smaller, although we could argue more arduous scale. She knew well that Christ had said that those who would follow Him will need to deny themselves daily and take up their Cross. This led her to live an intensely religious childhood and early adulthood (she died when she was only 31 years of age).
St. Rose most often prayed in seclusion, though she did attend church to receive the Sacraments. She committed herself to perpetual chastity in devotion to Christ, inspired, according to early sources, by Saint Catherine.
Her parents, however, planned an advantageous marriage for her to alleviate their financial burdens. She was compellingly beautiful, with winning charm, gifted musically and with the sewing needle, and a virtuous Catholic girl. And yet, St. Rose refused all candidates, choosing instead to live at home with her family. There, she combined religious practice in isolation and at church, with contributing financially to the household by selling her exquisite needlework and flowers she grew in their garden.
In their home in Lima, living a combination of lay and Religious life, St. Rose divided her time between her devotions, tending the poor and sick, and providing sanctuary for the homeless. As she explained: “When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors because in them we serve Jesus.”
St. Rose, pray for us.
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Venerada tanto en vida como luego de su muerte, Santa Rosa de Lima, llamada originalmente Isabel Flores de Oliva, nació el 20 de abril de 1586 en Lima Perú. Se convirtió en la primera santa en todas las Américas después de pasar toda su vida ayudando a los demás y dedicándose a la Iglesia. A Santa Rosa se le han atribuido muchos milagros, tanto es así que se ganó el término de patrona de Lima y Perú y, 50 años después de su muerte, fue canonizada.
Al leer la biografía de Santa Catalina de Siena, se inspiró para tomar a esa santa como modelo. Comenzó ayunando tres veces por semana. Luego añadió severas penitencias secretas, se cortó el pelo, se puso la “camiseta de pelo” en el cuerpo, e incluso se desfiguró la cara. Muchos de estos actos fueron realizados en contra de los deseos de sus padres y a pesar de las burlas de sus amigos. La recepción diaria de la Eucaristía la consoló.
Santa Rosa se manifestó abiertamente contra la corrupción de los buscadores de riqueza españoles en el Nuevo Mundo, y sus sacrificios dejaron una profunda impresión en la gente de Lima.
Oremos. “Santa Rosa de Lima, la más bella rosa que ha producido nuestro continente, no dejes un solo día de rezar a tu gran amigo Jesucristo, por este continente americano tan supremamente necesitado de las bendiciones de Dios. Por Jesucristo, nuestro Señor. Amén.”
Para leer más: https://www.aciprensa.com/recursos/santa-rosa-de-lima-3126
