Saint Rose of Lima - Patroness of the Americas

Saint Rose of Lima like other Visionaries, Mystics and Stigmatists have such powerful teachings. We have tried to focus on the gifts the Saints had been given: their visions, their mystical experiences, and their sufferings. But what the Lord has to teach us through their lives is so broad, so all-encompassing, we can’t leave much of anything out. So bear with us. We have so much to tell you.

Saint Rose of Lima is a very important Saint; you’ve got to know all there is to know about her. You will learn from her life, from her experiences, and from the gifts the Lord gave her. Rose Flores, raised to the level of Sainthood, for all the world to know, and renamed for posterity, Saint Rose of Lima, is the first canonized Saint in the Americas, thus her title, Patroness of the Americas.

Saint Rose of Lima - early years

She was born the product of two great cultures - the Spanish, who conquered and ruled the New World and the Inca Indians, a brilliant, comely race of people. Her great-grandmother was reported to have been of the Inca culture. The Incas were not dark-skinned like the Aztec or the American Indian. They were white-skinned. The children born of Spanish and Inca unions were usually breathtakingly beautiful.

Rose was a stunning, very fair child with light brown hair. She was part of a trio of powerful men and women in the Church of the early days of Peru.

St. Martin de Porres, and St. Toribio de Mongrevo, Archbishop of Lima, were both from the same time period, and from the same city, Lima, Peru. Martin was a very close friend to Rose and Archbishop Toribio baptized and confirmed her.

Saint Rose of Lima and the Dominicans

Rose and the Miracle of the Dominicans

The following Sunday morning, Rose and Fernando left as if they were going to the eight o’clock Mass at the Convent of the Holy Rosary. The only difference between this and other Sundays was that Rose had a little suitcase which contained all her worldly possessions, not very much. As they passed the Convent of the Holy Rosary, Rose asked Fernando if she might not go into the chapel and say a prayer. Fernando advised her to hurry. She went in and knelt down. Fernando stayed outside in the doorway of the church, but felt uncomfortable because his family’s front door was right across the street from this entrance. If they should come out and see him standing there, all would be lost.

After what he felt was a reasonable length of time, he called to Rose, to get a move on. Rose seemed not to pay attention to him. Finally, he went inside and snapped at her, “You will have plenty of time to pray after you have entered the convent.” She looked up at him, perplexed. “I would certainly like to leave, Fernando, but I cannot move.”

Exasperated, he grabbed her arm and tried to pull her up. He couldn’t move her. He exerted all his strength; she didn’t budge. Finally Rose turned to the statue of Our Lady, to whom she had been praying. She seemed to realize why she couldn’t get up. She spoke to Our Lady, “Good Mother, if you deliver me, I promise you to go back to my mother and live at home with my parents as long as you order me to do so, instead of in the convent.”

Saint Rose of Lima rose from the kneeler as if she were being lifted by Angels. She turned to Fernando who appeared aggravated on the surface but was secretly thrilled that his sister had such a close personal relationship with Our Lord Jesus, our Mother Mary and all the Angels and Saints.

Saint Rose of Lima said to him, “I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble, but evidently it is not the will of God and our Lady that I should enter the cloister. I must stay at home, at least for the time being.”

Fernando could only reply, “You and your miracles!” and with that, the cloister was forgotten forever but not the vocation.