August 23rd.  St. Rose of Lima.

Born in 1586 in Lima in Peru, her family fell on hard times through failure of a mining venture in the Andes.  She joined the Third Order of Dominicans (i.e. lay men and women living a form of the Dominican Rule) and took a vow of virginity.  She determined to offer her life as a reparation for sin and corruption in society, inflicting various severe penances on herself and living as a recluse in a potting shed in her garden.  She died in 1617 aged only 31.  No doubt there were complex psychological strands present in her life, but to our contemporary ‘fulfilment culture’ the idea of somebody making themselves a victim for other sinners seems so weird it is easy to forget that such was the destiny of Jesus himself.  Those who met her were certainly deeply impressed by the love of God which radiated from her.  She was canonised in 1671, the first native saint of South America.