Saint Rose of Lima

Isabel Flores de Oliva was born in Lima, Peru, on April 20, 1586, one of the many children of Gaspar Flores and María de Oliva. Her beauty earned her the nickname Rosa, and she later took the name Rose of Saint Mary at confirmation. From childhood she was drawn to prayer and penance, and she resisted her parents' plans for her marriage. She helped support her struggling family with fine needlework and by growing flowers.

Inspired by Saint Catherine of Siena, she became a Dominican tertiary at twenty and lived in a tiny hermitage she built in the family garden, spending long hours in prayer and severe penance. She also turned part of the family home into a refuge where she cared for the poor, the sick, Indigenous people and enslaved Africans. She was a friend of Saint Martin de Porres. After a painful illness she died on August 24, 1617, at thirty-one. Clement X canonized her in 1671, making her the first saint of the Americas.

In Peru her feast is celebrated on August 30, a national holiday: crowds visit her sanctuary in Lima and drop letters with their petitions into the well in her garden. The Universal Church, including the United States, keeps her memorial on August 23.

She is patroness of Lima, Peru, the Americas and the Philippines, and of Peru's National Police.