St. Rose of Lima
The first saint born in the Americas. She built her prayer house out of branches.
Rose was born in Lima, Peru, and her parents named her Isabel. Then someone leaned over her cradle and said her sleeping face looked like a rose, and the name stuck. People talked about her face for the rest of her life. What a pretty girl, what a lovely rose.
Behind the house was a garden, and in a corner of it Rose and her brother built a little prayer house out of branches, barely big enough to kneel in. She went there in the evenings and talked to God about everything that was not her face. One evening in the quiet, she heard Him call her Rose of my heart. The same name everyone used for her face, He used for her heart.
When her family lost almost all their money, Rose sold her flowers at the market and sewed at night until her fingers ached, and her garden fed them for years. She turned a room of the house into a little hospital for sick children, old grandmothers, and the people the rest of Lima walked past. She died at thirty one, and the whole city came to say goodbye to the girl from the garden.
The August envelope
August's letter comes from St. Rose herself, telling the little ones about the nickname everyone gave her face, the prayer house she built out of branches, and the day she learned that God does not stop at the outside of anyone.
- A hand-drawn letter from St. Rose
- A collectible prayer card, pencil art on the front, a hand-lettered prayer on the back
- A St. Rose sticker
- An 8-page hand-illustrated zine
St. Rose of Lima facts for kids
- Her real name was Isabel. Rose started as a nickname and never left.
- She built her own prayer house in the garden out of branches, barely big enough to kneel in
- When pirate ships appeared off the coast, Rose went to the church and stood at the front. The ships turned and sailed away.
- She was the first saint born in the Americas
Feast day: August 23 · Patron of Peru, the Americas, and gardeners
A different saint writes to your little one every month. Letters from Heaven mails a hand-illustrated letter, prayer card, sticker, and zine, straight to your mailbox.
Start the letters