Today the Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, the first canonized saint of the American continent and the principal patroness of Peru and the Americas. Living at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Rose was deeply influenced by the example of Saint Catherine of Siena, following in her footsteps to the point of joining the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She chose a life of profound seclusion, retreating into a modest hermitage built in the garden of her family home. There, she led an existence of absolute ascetic rigor, consisting of continuous prayer and mystical suffering, which she offered tirelessly for the conversion of the indigenous people and sinners. Her figure remains a luminous beacon of faith and total dedication to Christ, capable of uniting the New World with the great mystical tradition of the universal Church.
