The Life of St Rose of Lima (1586-1617)

The first historically accurate biography in English of Rose of Lima (1586-1617), the first saint canonised in the Americas. The impact of Rose of Lima, patron saint of Peru, the Philippines, India and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, on the evolution of Latin American and, indeed, Christian culture has been significant. To this day, she is considered milagrosera (good at miracles) and venerated by Catholics and Anglicans alike. This book is the first historically accurate biography of Rose in English. It draws on the 1664 Vita mirabiliis et mors pretiosa venerabiliis sororis Rosae de S. Maria Limensis (never translated into English) and the manuscripts of the Ordinary and Apostolic Processes in order to provide a reliable account of Rose's life, while remaining sensitive to the historical, political, and religious frameworks which governed the creation of hagiography in the Spanish colonies in the seventeenth century. Importantly, it takes account of a previously unknown manuscript detailing the Second Apostolic Process of St Rose, discovered by the author in the Vatican Archives, which has never before been consulted. The book replaces the guesswork of previous studies with historical fact to offer a new biography one of Latin America's most important saints.