Reflection on St. Rose of Lima’s Feast Day

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Reflection on St. Rose of Lima’s Feast Day
by Eduardo Pruneda, JDH Seminarian

“When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: “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” Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2449

The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes a great example of St Rose´s life, the first canonized saint in Latin America and patron saint of Latin America and the Philippines. The most interesting thing about St. Rose of Lima is how she was able to see the face of Jesus in the sick, the poor and the needy, realizing that she served Jesus by serving them.

Saint Rose was a lay woman, she was not a nun as sometimes believed. She lived at home with their parents in Lima, Peru, as tertiary Dominican and using the Dominican habit. St. Rose felt a desire to surrender to God at an early age, but it was not through religious life. God revealed to Rose that he wanted her to serve him from her home, serving in the middle of society.

Saint Rose of Lima is a great of example of the mission of the laity. Everything she received from God through the mystical revelation, meditation, and prayer, she made come alive in charity work. This means the way to respond to God’s love was loving those whom God loves, the sick, the poor, and the needy. This is where she saw the suffering face of Christ.

Isabel Flores de Oliva was her real name, but her mother called her Rose. I think it’s a perfect nickname, as a rose spreads its scent, just as St Rose spread the aroma of Christ; an aroma that we are all invited to spread and that smells of love, mercy and compassion. These are the fruits of an intimate encounter with God.

A ROSE AMONG THORNS By Robert Lentz

The life of this saint is like that of a rose among thorns. She was born into a poor but upper-class family in Peru, soon after the conquest. Coming from a bewildering and abusive childhood, she identified deeply with the suffering Christ. She longed to become a nun, but was prevented by her family from doing so. She practiced austere penances at home and eventually became a Dominican tertiary. She was a close friend of another Dominican saint with an unhappy childhood, Martin de Porres. While the pain inflicted on her as a child helped to foster a piety we find puzzling today, she also developed a compassion for the Indian peoples of her day who suffered abuse not unlike her own. To help support her family, she did fine embroidery and raised flowers for sale. Along with flowers, she raised medical herbs which she used to cure the sick poor of Lima who began flocking to her small infirmary in her family’s home. She had a special love and concern for the Indians who had been savagely conquered by men like Pizarro. She herself had Inca blood. Her love for God was passionate and deep. She wrote mystical poetry, which she occasionally sang with a guitar. Like many a Spanish mystic, she had to defend herself before the dreaded Inquisition. Near the end of her short life, a small bird came each day at sunset and sang a love song with her that she had composed. She died after a painful illness, just as a clock was striking midnight – reminiscent of the Gospel parable of the Bridegroom and the ten virgins bearing lamps.

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