St. Rose of Lima and the Christ Child (M 023)

Like St. Anthony of Padua (JM 05) and some other mystics of the Church, St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617) experienced visions of the Christ Child. At age five, St. Rose was taught to read and write by Him when the adults around her were to busy to teach her. As an adult, St. Rose converted a room in her house with a small statue of the Child Jesus enshrined into an infirmary for the indigent sick. There, she performed many miracles of healing that she attributed to “the Little Doctor”, that is, the Christ Child. Finally, just before her death, she experienced a mystic marriage. The Child Jesus said to her: “Rose of My heart, be My spouse!” + The image here depicts an intimate, tender embrace between St. Rose and the Christ Child she adored. St. Rose is recognized by her crown of roses and Dominican habit. To her, the Child Jesus holds out a spray of white lilies, symbol of purity. + Feast: August 23 + Image Credit (M 023): Antique image of S. Rosa Limana, Americae Patrona [St. Rose of Lima, Patron of the Americas] from a late 19th-century devotional print in chromolithography, originally printed by Stab[ilmento] P. Casetti & Co., Rome, Italy, unnumbered Dominican series, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.