“The Gift of Grace increases as the struggle increases.”

“Apart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven.”

Isabel Flores de Olivia was born in 1586 in Lima, Peru to Spanish Colonists. She was exceptionally beautiful and was nicknamed “Rose”. At her confirmation, she took the name officially.

From an early age, she wanted to be a nun and often prayed, fasted and performed penances in secret. She performed daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and took daily communion.

As men sought to marry her, she marred her face by rubbing it with pepper to make it blister and cropped her hair short. Her parents wanted her to marry and opposed her vow of chastity but she remained in her room for long periods of time in prayer instead.

When she turned 20, she was permitted to join the Third Order of St. Dominic and continued a life of extreme prayer, fasting and penance. She wore a heavy silver crown with spikes that could pierce her skin. They were to remind her of the Crown of Thorns. At one point, the spikes became so lodged in her skull that the crown was removed with great difficulty.

She died at the age of 31, having predicted the date of her death. Her funeral was a major event attended by the City’s authorities.

She is the patron saint of those who suffer ridicule for their piety, the Americas, florists, gardeners, India, nurses, Peru, Philippines, philosophers, security forces, protection against vanity, and people who suffer family issues.

Her feast day is August 23.

A town founded in 1865 had changed its name to Santa Rosa in 1890 in honor of a local chapel to Saint Rose.

“When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus.”

For God’s Glory.