Santa Rosa de Lima
The first canonized saint of the Americas — and the patroness of our parish. Feast day: August 23.
Her Life
She was born Isabel Flores de Oliva in the city of Lima, Peru, on April 20, 1586, one of many children of Gaspar Flores and María de Oliva y Herrera. Her beloved nickname “Rose” came from her infancy, when a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose.
As a young girl, in emulation of the Dominican tertiary St. Catherine of Siena, she began to fast and take on penances. She rejected all suitors, and though her father forbade her from entering a convent, she instead joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, living a life of prayer and penance in a room of the family home. She permanently abstained from meat, helped the sick and hungry of her community, and wore a silver crown with small spikes inside, in emulation of Christ’s Crown of Thorns.
After eleven years of this hidden life, marked by intervals of mystical ecstasy, she died on August 24, 1617, at just 31 years of age.
Sainthood & Legacy
Beatified 1667
By Pope Clement IX, fifty years after her death.
Canonized 1671
By Pope Clement X — the first Catholic saint born in the Americas.
Feast: August 23
Celebrated worldwide since Pope Paul VI’s 1969 calendar revision.
Come be part of the story.
Join us for Mass — you’ll always have a place here. Se habla español.
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