Isabel Flores de Oliva was born in Lima on April 20, 1586, the tenth of thirteen children of the Flores de Oliva, Spanish nobles who had moved to Peru.

It was her nurse Marianna, of Indian origin, who gave her the name Rose because of the incredible beauty that characterized her. A name later confirmed at her confirmation and at the age of twenty when she wore the habit of the Third Order of Dominicans, like her model of life, Saint Catherine of Siena. The name "of Saint Mary" was then added to Rose, to express the tender love that always tied her to the Virgin to whom she turned at every moment to ask for protection.

Santa Rose experienced poverty when her family fell into poverty due to the failure of her father's business; she worked hard as a maid, in the garden and as an embroiderer, until late at night, bringing the Word of Christ and her yearning for good and justice to the homes of buyers, which, in the Peruvian society of the time, crushed by colonizing Spain, seemed completely obscured. In her mother's house she created a sort of shelter for the needy, where she assisted abandoned children and elderly people, especially of Indian origin.

Already as a child, Rose aspired to consecrate herself to God in the cloistered life, but she remained a "virgin in the world" and as a Dominican tertiary she locked herself in a cell of a few square meters, built in the garden of her mother's house, from which she left only for religious functions and where she spent most of her days praying and in close union with the Lord.

While praying before an image of the Virgin Mary with Jesus in her arms, one day Rose heard a voice from that child that said to her: "Rose, dedicate all your love to me ...". She had no doubts: from then on, Jesus was her exclusive love until death, a love cultivated in virginity, prayer and penance. She often repeated: "My God, you can increase suffering, as long as you increase my love for you".

It is the redemptive meaning of the Passion of Christ that became clear to her: pain lived with faith redeems, saves. And the pain of man can be associated with the saving pain of Christ. It is an interior turning point that coincided with the reading of Saint Catherine, from whom she learned love for the blood of Christ and love for the Church. And it is precisely in her hermitage in the garden that Saint Rose relived in the flesh the passion of Jesus, with two intentions: the conversion of the Spaniards and the evangelization of the Indians.

In fact, mortifications and corporal punishments of all kinds are attributed to her, but also many conversions and miracles. One of all, the failed invasion of the Dutch pirates in Lima in 1615.

While she was still alive, Rose was examined by a mixed commission of religious and scientific people who judged her mystical experiences as true "gifts of grace", so much so that at her death, due to the enormous crowd that attended her funeral, Rose was already a saint. She died only after having renewed her religious vows, repeating several times: "Jesus, be with me!".

It was the night of August 23, 1617. After her death, when her body was transported to the Chapel of the Rosary, the Madonna from that statue before which the Saint had prayed so many times smiled at her again, for the last time. The crowd present cried out a miracle.

In 1668, Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX and canonized three years later.

She is the first canonized saint of the New World and is the patron saint of Peru, of all Latin America, of the Indies and of the Philippines.

She is invoked as the protector of florists and gardeners, against volcanic eruptions and also in case of wounds or for the resolution of family disputes.

A Jubilee Year commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of Saint Rose with the motto: “400 years interceding for you,” in reference to the thousands of prayers that the Saint received and answered over the course of four centuries.

https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/rosa-da-lima.html