Wounds of love: the mystical marriage of Saint Rose of Lima

Abstract

St. Rose of Lima (Isabel Flores y Oliva, 1586-1617) was canonized in 1671 as the first saint of the New World and Patron of the Americas. In this engrossing new biography, Frank Graziano offers the most comprehensive examination of the life of Rose to appear in any language. An obscure, self-mortifying mystic, Rose seems a strange choice for the distinction of first American saint. Graziano argues that the cult that grew up around St. Rose during her life and greatly expanded after her death was seen by both Church and State as a challenge and even a threat to authority. For that reason, he contends, the Church acted quickly to render her harmless by bringing her into the fold. Graziano goes on to consider Rose's ascetic Christianity in its cultural context. He seeks to discover why the severe austerities and mortifications of female piety that today are regarded as psychopathological were lauded as exemplary means of worship in the seventeenth century. In fact, he shows, St. Rose's behavior and experiences were initially regarded as pathological by many significant observers within her own culture, but such assessments were gradually dismissed as her saintly image was constructed. Drawing on key archival sources and the insights offered by psychoanalytic theory, Graziano constructs a compelling portrait of one of the Catholic Church's most beloved saints.

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