Life of St. Rose of Lima - Patroness of the Americas

This is a very difficult chapter, in that there is so much to tell you about this most powerful saint, this time in the history of the Church, and of the world that we don’t know where to start.

These 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. 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, experiences, and the gifts the Lord gave her.

Rose Flores, raised to the level of sainthood for all the world to know and renamed for posterity as St. Rose of Lima, is the first canonized saint in the Americas, thus her title "Patroness of the Americas".

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.