ROSA OF LIMA, St. — Dominican virgin, born in Lima on 20 Apr. 1586, died there on 24 Aug. 1617. Daughter of Gaspar Flores and María Oliva, her baptismal name of Isabel was changed to Rosa. From childhood, eager for holiness, she took as her model St. Catherine of Siena, whom she later came to resemble.
ROSA DA LIMA — ROSA SALVATORE
great success both as a painter and as a poet; however, he wished to return to Rome (1649), where he settled permanently. During this second Roman period, he sought to establish himself in another genre of painting: large monumental and historical compositions, which provoked the bitterest and not entirely unjustified criticism from his contemporaries. His sensitivity and refined sense of nature, which from his youth had led him to set up his easel outdoors, combined with a lively temperament, enabled him to transfigure with romantic imagination landscapes and seascapes painted from life, or crowded battle scenes. This was his natural field of action, in which he achieved authentic masterpieces.
Among his numerous works, those in Florentine collections deserve mention (notable among them is the *Boschetto dei filosofi*); the *Battaglia Corsini* at the Louvre; and works in Naples. Paintings of sacred subjects are scarce: besides the canvas in Viterbo, in Rome at S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini is *The Martyrdom of SS. Cosmas and Damian*; in the Pinacoteca of Naples is *Jesus Among the Doctors*, and in the Pinacoteca of Brera in Milan is *The Virgin of Suffrage*.
Maria Donati
II. LITERATURE
To better highlight the versatility of his genius, R., besides some poetry, little songs and cantatas for musical works, left six satires in terza rima, directed against the vices, deviations, and iniquities of his time, mercilessly denouncing the dissolute and pleasure-seeking breed of singers and musicians (*Musica*), the vain rabble of scribblers (*Poesia*), the hack painters (*Pittura*), the corrupt and warlike society driven by greed for power and wealth (*Guerra*), his personal enemies in Rome (*Invidia*), and the pomp and ignorance of the nobility of Naples and the Roman Curia (*Babilonia*). While his style is brilliant and lively and his lashes are sharp and cutting, the author does not appear to be free of the very defects he reproaches in others, despite his religious vocation, which led him to enter the Third Order of St. Dominic on 10 Aug. 1606.
also in his religious vocation, entering the Third Order of St. Dominic on 10 Aug. 1606.
His entire brief life was a continual exercise in harsh penances, accompanied by physical trials and especially by long spiritual aridity. He loved solitude and was endowed with a prophetic spirit.
He was beatified by Clement IX with a brief of 12 Feb. 1668 and canonized by Clement X on 12 Apr. 1671. Chronologically, he is the first saint of the New World; he was proclaimed patron of Lima, of Peru, and of America. His feast was originally celebrated on 26 Aug., now on 30 Aug.