The Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Rose of Lima (1586–1617) on Aug. 23, calling attention to the most significant first-class relic of the beloved saint: her skull, which is preserved in the Basilica of the Most Holy Rosary at St. Dominic Convent in the Peruvian capital of Lima.
Friar Luis Enrique Ramírez, a Dominican priest and rector of the basilica located in Lima’s historic center, explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, how the relic is preserved and where it is kept within this historic church entrusted to the Order of Preachers.
“St. Rose’s skull has been here in the basilica since the late 1800s, around the time this neoclassical altarpiece was created,” the priest explained, standing before the reliquary housing the first-class relic. The reliquary, which also holds significant relics of St. Martin de Porres and St. John Macías, “consists of two parts: One section holds the skull itself, which wears a crown of roses that was originally gold but is now silver,” the priest noted, adding that the original crown was stolen.
The other part is a small box containing some of her bones, he said.
There is also a tablecloth she embroidered, which serves as an example “of the work she used to do.”
The Dominican friar also noted that over time, her bones “have been divided into minuscule fragments, and relics of St. Rose of Lima are found in a great number of places all over the world.”
St. Rose’s house, located very close to St. Dominic Convent, preserves 10 objects belonging to the first saint of the Americas, such as her betrothal ring to the Lord, soil from her grave, and a handwritten letter.
Why are there relics of saints like St. Rose of Lima?
Ramírez explained that the relics of saints represent “a way for the faithful to share in the holiness of the person they venerate. Being close to the saint is a very ancient tradition in the Church.”
By being near saints’ relics, the faithful can “share in their holiness; it’s a way to find encouragement. It’s also a way to help you, in some sense, to strive to live your life in a state of grace.”
The Dominican priest noted that given the current trade in relics and the risk of counterfeits, the Holy See has established clearer and stricter regulations for handling requests for a saintʼs relics, particularly to verify their authenticity. This process requires authorization from a bishop and, in the case of St. Rose, from the Dominicans.
Plaque commemorating the mystical betrothal of St. Rose of Lima
Inside the basilica, on the left side of the nave, there is a plaque on the floor marking the exact spot where St. Rose of Lima’s mystical betrothal took place in 1617 — the moment she consecrated herself entirely to the Lord after hearing the words “Rose, be my spouse.”
According to Ramírez, the saint had come to the site of the former Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary to bid farewell, as she was preparing to become a Poor Clare nun; her friends had raised funds to enable her to enter the convent with the required dowry, as was the custom at the time.
“She came to bid farewell to Our Lady of the Rosary represented by the image that at that time was in her chapel, right where the plaque is now, and that is where the phenomenon occurred in which she became so heavy she could not be lifted, and where the mystical betrothal to the Infant Jesus also took place,” the Dominican friar explained.
“She realized that God did not want her to be a nun but rather a laywoman, so she decided to join the Dominican Third Order as a laywoman, here at St. Dominic Convent in Lima,” he added.
The ‘new’ chapel of St. Rose of Lima and another first-class relic
During a tour of the St. Dominic Convent Museum, Ramírez showed EWTN News a “new” chapel, erected about 10 years ago in a space that had previously been the room of another Dominican friar.
“On the main altar stands the image of St. Rose of Lima, the patron saint of Peru, America, and the Philippines, which is carried on a litter during the Aug. 29–30 processions,” the priest explained.
Beneath the image “lies a relic: the shoulder blade of St. Rose of Lima. And everything in the chapel is dedicated to her. We have paintings, both old and new, including of St. Catherine of Siena, to whom St. Rose was devoted, as well as images of St. Rose’s ‘Doctorcito’ [‘Little Doctor,’ her affectionate name for the Child Jesus], the image to which she held great devotion.” There is also Our Lady of the Rosary of the Creoles’ Confraternity and “the most important sculpture: the marble work by Melchiorre Cafà, which was present at St. Rose’s beatification ceremony at Santa Sabina Basilica” in Rome in 1668.
What lessons can Catholics today learn from St. Rose of Lima?
“Let’s remember that St. Rose of Lima was a laywoman; that is, she was not a religious sister but someone who lived in her own home,” the Dominican priest noted.
Ramírez recalled how the saint worked at various tasks such as embroidery and helping in other households to contribute to the support of her family. At the same time, he continued, “St. Rose was fully aware of God’s presence in her life and engaged in profound mystical prayer, imitating St. Catherine of Siena in what is known as the inner cell.”
This, he said, means that “she did not have a physical cell to retreat to, as in a monastery, but she did have an inner cell where she could take refuge, and indeed she had many mystical experiences in that regard.”
Rose of St. Mary, as she is also known, lived a life “deeply committed to the suffering and the needy in her society, to the poor who needed her help not just with her counsel but also with medical care, comforting, and assistance in general.”
In this way, Ramírez emphasized, St. Rose of Lima is “a very contemporary example” for any Catholic today. Like St. Rose, he said, “you can work to earn a living, you can commit yourself to mystical prayer, and you can commit yourself to social work in the service of the needy,” living a “committed life within our Church and, furthermore, in the spirit of our Dominican charism.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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