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The saints

St Rose of Lima

A girl in a garden in Lima, and the first saint of the Americas.

Feast: 23 August · 1586 to 1617 · Lima, Peru

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The Church of Santa Rosa in Lima, Peru: a red and white façade between two bell towers, with palm trees.

Diego Delso, 2015. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St Rose of Lima

A garden in Lima, Peru, early 1600s

In a small garden in Lima, a young woman has built herself a tiny grotto with her brother’s help.1

When her work allows, she spends her nights there in solitude and prayer.1

She never left Lima. She became the first saint of the New World.

Patron of the Americas1

01St Rose of Lima

Patroness of America

Rose was born at Lima on 20 April 1586 and died there on 30 August 1617.1

She was canonized in 1671 by Clement X, the first American to be so honoured.1

The Catholic Encyclopedia calls her patroness of America.1

The Church of Santa Rosa in Lima, Peru: a red and white façade between two bell towers, with palm trees.
The Church of Santa Rosa in Lima, near the house where she lived. Diego Delso, 2015. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Rose of Lima”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.