St. Rose of Lima
Everyone talked about her face. God talked about her heart.
Her parents named her Isabel. Then somebody looked into the cradle and said the baby's sleeping face looked like a rose, and that was that. People commented on her face for the rest of her life.
There was a garden behind the house, and in the corner of it she and her brother built a tiny prayer house out of branches, just big enough to kneel inside. She went out there in the evenings and talked to God about everything that had nothing to do with her face. One evening she heard Him call her Rose of my heart. Same nickname. Different thing being named.
When the family lost their money she sold flowers at the market and sewed at night, and her garden fed them for years. She turned a room of the house into a small hospital for the people the rest of Lima walked past.
St. Rose of Lima facts for kids
- Her real name was Isabel. Rose started as a nickname about her face.
- The first saint born in the Americas
- She built her own prayer house in the garden out of branches
- When pirate ships appeared off the coast she went and stood at the front of the church. The ships turned around.
Feast day: August 23 · Patron of Peru, the Americas, and gardeners
St. Rose, remind me that God does not stop at the outside of anyone.
We mailed this one
St. Rose wrote a letter to the kids on our list, and it went out with a hand-drawn prayer card, a sticker, and an 8-page zine.
See St. Rose's letter