If you've been hearing Mass lately , chances are you would hear the name of Sta. Rosa de Lima while the priest leads the prayer of the Oracio Imperata. And if you've been going around Intramuros a lot you're likely to see her image on the left topmost pillar atop a pediment beside the stained glass rose window of the Manila Cathedral. Filipinos know very little of her but she was once Patroness of the Philippines during the early Spanish colonial period.
Born at Lima, Peru 20 April, 1586 to a poor family, her original name was Isabel but since she was a beautiful baby they changed her name to Rose. Her father was a Spaniard by the name of Gaspar de Flores and her mother, Maria d'Olivia was of Indian descent. She also helped in the family clinic whenever she was needed. She was inspired by the life of St. Catherine of Sienna and took her as a role model so she took the vow of chastity and did daily penitence. At a young age, St. Rosa showed signs of Holiness as she would spend hours on end in front of the family altar adoring Jesus and Mary. Just like Mary, she resolved to remain a virgin and took extra-ordinary means to preserve it.
She was obviously a very beautiful girl growing into womanhood. And she was aware of her beauty but deemed it an unnecessary trait as it attracted too much attention from male admirers. She countered this by working hard so that her hands would be rough and she wore coarse clothes. She was also known to rub her face with a mixture of lye and pepper to make her skin blotchy and unappealing. She loved her parents but displeased them by refusing to be married off .
At the tender age of twenty, she joined the Third Order of the Dominicans without the consent of her parents. It was during this time that she did her missionary work. She cared for the sick, the poor and the slavesShe did penance as a way of atoning for the conversion of sinners and for the souls in Purgatory. She is pictured wearing a crown of roses which hid a steel pin underneath that stuck to her head and she wore a belt of chains as well.
The Lord is said to have appeared to her a few days before her death. She is said to have asked the Lord to increase her sufferings in direct proportion for her increased love for HIM. Sta. Rosa died in Lima, Peru on the 24th of August, 1617. Upon her death, hundreds attended her funeral at the cemetery of the Dominican convent. She was beatified by Pope Clement IX and canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Her feast day is on the 23rd of August. Sta. Rosa is the very first saint of the Americas and eventually our Patroness as well...
No comments:
Post a Comment