Saint of the Day

Aug 23 – St Rose of Lima, recluse and mystic

Summary: St Rose of Lima, consecrated to God, recluse, and mystic.
Born at Lima (Peru) in 1586; died there on 24 August 1617. Noted for her radiant love of God and for the severe penance and hardships she endured during serious illness and modelled herself on Saint Catherine of Siena. She was the first saint of the Americas to be canonised (1671).

St Rose of Lima, Peru

This South American Saint's real name was Isabel, but she was such a beautiful baby that she was commonly called by the name Rose

Rose lived an extraordinary life of holiness and self-denial. A recluse and mystic, she chose not to marry, and joined the Dominican Third Order. She is the first canonised saint of the Americas. This South American Saint’s real name was Isabel, but she was such a beautiful child that she was commonly called by the name ‘Rose’

Patrick Duffy tells her story.

A beautiful child
She was born in Lima, Peru and named Isabel De Flores Y Del Oliva on 20 April, 1586. Her father was a Spaniard, and her mother of native Peruvian blood. Isabel was a sickly baby but soon grew healthy and beautiful. Her family was poor, and hoped that Isabel, growing into an extremely attractive young woman, would marry well and assist the family. From childhood Isabel was nicknamed Rose for her looks and rosy cheeks, she was more taken up with the religious world than the secular.

Like St Catherine of Siena

Rose took a vow of chastity and modelled herself on Dominican St Catherine, devoting herself to a life of self-denial. Despite the ridicule of friends and family, she continued to practice extreme forms of religious observance. She fasted and became a vegetarian, mortifying her flesh with hard work and going so far as to rub lye or lime into her hands, pepper on her face and skewer her head with a long pin instead of the roses her mother put there. She wanted to turn attention away from her own beauty and focus it on God.

Third Order of St Dominic

She flogged herself, wore a hair shirt and slept little. It took her many years of prayer, fasting, hard work and secret penances before her family reluctantly agreed to let her become a member of the Third Order of St Dominic, taking vows of poverty, at twenty. She moved out of her family home into a small grotto built on their property, where she continued to devote herself to the care of the poor and infirm. She helped her family with her fine workmanship and was known for her lace-making.

A figure of Contradiction
Rose gladly offered up her suffering, atoning for the idolatry of her country, for the conversion of sinners, and for the souls in purgatory. Some people were enthusiastic in their praise of her, while others scorned her life.

A Huge Funeral

Following her death at thirty-one, her funeral could not take place for days because the people of Lima thronged to see her body. She was buried in the cemetery of the Dominican convent. Later, as a number of miracles were attributed to her, her remains were moved to the church of San Domingo, where she was laid to rest in a special chapel.

A Big Feastday in Peru
Rose of Lima was beatified by Pope Clement IX in 1667 and canonised in 1671 by Clement X, the first canonised saint of the Western hemisphere. Great celebrations attend her feast day in the city of Lima.

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Memorable Proverb for Today

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

~ George Eliot ~

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Aug 23 – Saint Eoghan or Eugene of Ardstraw 6th century (Patron of Derry Diocese)

Summary : St Eoghan or Eugene of Ardstraw became a monk after training at St Ninian’s monastery in Galloway, Scotland. His Irish foundations were at Kilnamanagh near Dublin and Ardstraw in west Tyrone.

Patrick Duffy fills in some details about Eoghan.

Although now known as Eugene (from the Greek meaning “well-born”), his proper name is Eoghan, meaning “born under [the protection of] the yew tree”. This may refer to the hope that he would grow up “hardy”.

Carried Off to Britain
According to his Vita, Eoghan was born in Leinster, the son of Cainneach and Muindeacha, who may have been an already Christian family. He was one of a large number of young people, including Tiarnach of Clones and Cairbre of Coleraine, who were captured by pirates and carried off to Britain, where they became students at Candida Casa (Whithorn in Galloway) founded by St Ninian. They may also have spent some time in Brittany (Armorica).

Kilnamanagh
Eoghan returned to Ireland and founded a monastery at Kilnamanagh, near Tallaght, Dublin. Here he stayed for fifteen years and trained “not a few bishops and very many priests”, including his nephew Caoimhín, St Kevin of Glendalough (d. c.618).

Ardstraw
His next foundation was around 540 at Ardstraw in west Tyrone, to which he may have come as a voluntary exile for Christ and started a monastic house, but the tradition insists that Eoghan was a bishop.

The Vita points out that Eoghan had a close relationship with Tiarnach of Clones and Cairbre of Coleraine and this may reflect alliances of religious houses threatened with takeover by Armagh.

Ardstraw had a prominent place in Church life and was probably an episcopal see until the 1150s, when it moved to Rathlure, then to Maghera, and by 1254 was integrated with Derry.

Influence
Both the Church of Ireland and the Catholic cathedrals in Derry are dedicated to St Eugene.

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Memorable Proverb for Today

An idea. a prayer,
energy and persistence
will conquer most things.

~ Elbert Hubbard ~

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