Readings:
Psalm 9:9-14
Sirach 7:32-36
James 2:1-8, 14-17
Mark 10:23-30Preface of Baptism
[Common of a Monastic or Professed Religious]
[Common of a Prophetic Witness]
[For Social Service]
[For Prophetic Witness in the Church]
PRAYER (traditional language)
Merciful God, who didst send thy Gospel to the people of Peru through Rosa de Lima, who worked among the poorest of the poor; Help us to follow her example in bringing fearlessly the comfort of thy grace to all downtrodden and outcast people, that thy Church
may be renewed with songs of salvation and praise; through Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
PRAYER (contemporary language)
Merciful God, you sent your Gospel to the people of Peru through Rosa de Lima, who worked among the poorest of the poor; Help us to follow her example in bringing fearlessly the comfort of your grace to all downtrodden and outcast people, that your Church may be renewed with songs of salvation and praise; through Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
This commemoration appears in A Great Cloud of Witnesses. Collects have been revised to remove reference to Martin de Porres, who now appears separately.
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Last updated: 22 June 2019
ROSA DE LIMA
ASCETIC AND MYSTIC, 1617
Saint Rose of Lima, TOSD (April 20, 1586 – August 24, 1617), was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her life of severe asceticism and her care of the needy of the city through her own private efforts. A lay member of the Dominican Order, she was declared a saint by the Catholic Church, being the first person born in the Americas to be canonized as such.
She was born Isabel Flores de Olivia in the city of Lima, one of the many children of Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier in the Imperial Spanish army, and his wife, María de Oliva y Herrera, native of Lima. Her later nickname "Rose" comes from an incident in her infancy: a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose. She formally took the name of Rose upon her confirmation.
As a young girl—in emulation of the noted Dominican tertiary, St. Catherine of Siena—she began to fast three times a week and performed severe penances in secret. She rejected all suitors against the objections of her friends and her family.
After daily fasting, she took to permanently abstaining from eating meat. She helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her room and taking care of them. Rose sold her fine needlework, and took flowers that she grew to market, to help her family. She made and sold lace and embroidery to care for the poor. Otherwise, she became a recluse, leaving her room only for her visits to church.
She wanted to become a nun, but her father forbade it, so she instead entered the Third Order of St. Dominic while living in her parents' home. In her twentieth year she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity. She only allowed herself to sleep two hours a night at most, so that she had more hours to devote to prayer.
For eleven years she lived this way, with intervals of ecstasy, and eventually died on August 24, 1617, at the young age of 31. It is said that she prophesied the date of her death. Her funeral was held in the cathedral, attended by all the public authorities of Lima.
(more from Wikipedia)