Santa Rosa de Lima: In this little-known place he left for heaven

In Lima, land of Santa Rosa, there is a sanctuary built about the home where she was born and raisedbut something that is little known is that the saint, whose feast day in Peru is this August 30, died in another house, where a great spiritual treasure is kept.

At the end of her life, Saint Rose of Lima was welcomed into the home of the De la Maza, a wealthy Spanish family who cared to help her through her illness. Don Gonzalo de la Maza and her wife, Doña María de Uzátegui, gave him a small room. There the saint left for the Father’s House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRIjyk5WN08

More than 400 years later, the land of the De la Maza residence is now a convent called the Monastery of Santa Rosa de Santa María, which is guarded by cloistered Dominican nuns.

In statements to EWTN, Sister Ana María de Jesús, prioress of the monastery, pointed out that “after her canonization, the little room that they gave her to live, pray, and do her work to support her family became a sanctuary. ”.

In fact, that room is today a small chapel, which cannot be easily accessed because it is inside a cloister and which the nuns have very well preserved.

There you can see several paintings on the walls where various moments and mystical appearances that the saint had are represented, while one of her bones is preserved on the main altar, which constitutes a first-grade relic.

Upon entering through the main door, on the left, there is a small space protected by glass. Inside is a recumbent image of the saint placed on a reddish brick floor. That soil is what remains from that time. In that precise place was the bed where the saint died.

Likewise, there is a plaque in ancient Spanish that, paraphrased from current Spanish, would say: “From this place, blessed, the one who was Rosa de Lima departed with light flight, triumphant, pure and beautiful, to unite with the Lamb who was Rosa de Lima on August 24 of 1617”.

Another relic present in this chapel is a heavy cross that Santa Rosa had made to pray the Via Crucis daily in the patio of the house, as penance. The prioress gave EWTN a small piece of that cross, which is preserved in a special altar inside the ACI Prensa offices in Lima.

The Monastery of Santa Rosa

The Monastery of Santa Rosa de Santa María was founded in 1708 and its community is currently made up of several nuns with perpetual vows.

According to the seasons of the year and the patron saint festivals, the sisters produce various sweets to sell, which also serves as a source of income for their livelihood. Among them are the chocotejas for the Santa Rosa novena and Doña Pepa’s nougat for the Lord of Miracles in October. At other times they also prepare alfajores.

In this place, where peace and tranquility is perceived, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, the nuns dedicate themselves to doing penance and a lot of prayer.

“We ask a lot, a lot, because that is our goal, to pray for the good of our brothers,” said the prioress, who entered the convent when she was very young and has already been a Dominican for more than 50 years. In this sense, she joyfully expressed her desire to die faithful to her vocation and in the service of others.

It should be noted that the monastery also has a large church where the faithful can go to participate in Mass and receive the sacraments.

This article was published in 2023 and has been updated for republication.