"Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart."
Today on the day I end my pilgrimage to Portugal and Spain for WYD, we remember one of the patron saints of WYD 2011: Saint Rose of Lima. She was born in Lima, Peru as Isabel on April 20, 1586 to Spanish immigrants to the New World. She was a beautiful girl and devoted daughter. She was very devoted to her vow of chastity that she used pepper and lye to run her complexion so she would not be attractive. She lived and meditated in a garden, growing vegetables and embroidered items to sell to support her family and the poor. In 1606 she became a Dominican tertiary. She was a mystic and a visionary and received the invisible stigmata. She is the founder of social work in Peru. She had a great devotion to Saint Catherine of Siena. She died on August 24, 1617 in Lima or natural causes. She was canonized in 1671. She is the first saint born in the Americas.
She is the patron of florists, gardeners, needle workers, Lima, Peru, and WORLD YOUTH DAY 2011!!
"Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven."
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