Holy Rosary Catholic Church (Indianapolis, Indiana) - stained glass, St. Rose of Lima

While St. Rose of Lima, whose feast day we celebrate this August 23, isn’t our primary patron (Our Lady claims that title) or secondary patron (that’s St. Joseph), she does rank high on the list of saints we really like. Why?

St. Rose is close to our hearts and part of our name because we are a community founded for the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California. She is the patron of our diocese, which took its name from the city of its episcopal see, Santa Rosa. But how did this particular area of California receive the name St. Rose? The story goes back further to the time of Spanish missionary activity. A legend handed down by generations tells the story of a visiting  Franciscan priest, Padre Juan Amorós, who baptized a young Native American girl in a local creek. It was customary at the time for priests to name rivers and creeks for Catholic saints. This baptism took place on the day of the Feast of Santa Rosa of Lima, and Padre Amorós named the young girl "Rosa" and the creek "Santa Rosa".

On the feast day of St. Rose of Lima, we remember the heroic young woman who became the first saint from the Americas to be canonized, who loved Jesus Christ fiercely, and who refused Him nothing. We ask her intercession for the Diocese of Santa Rosa that the faithful of this diocese would grow to imitate evermore the example of their patron. St. Rose of Lima, pray for us!

Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

-St. Rose of Lima

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