NOTICES OF PERU. 



311 



pious lady saw her soul escorted to the regions of glory, by a 

 multitude of angels ! 



So great was the rush made by the inhabitants of Lima, to 

 obtain parts of her garments for reliques and amulets, that 

 the viceroy set a guard over her body, to keep them off. 



She was buried in the chapter of the convent of Santo Do- 

 mingo, and at the end of two years, the body was exhumed, 

 and placed upon her altar. 



After her death, she appeared and spoke to several persons. 

 Her reliques were effectual in curing the incurable, and even 

 in animating the dead ! 



She was beatified in Rome, April 1688, and canonized in 

 1671, as the universal patroness of all the Indies.* 



Miraculous as the life of Santa Rosa appears, the highest 

 functionaries of the church, at that time, bear testimony to the 

 facts stated ; and no less than eleven holy confessors swore, 

 that during her whole life, she never committed sin, or even 

 had a sinful thought ! Yet there are not wanting, in the present 

 day, persons malicious enough to doubt her sanctity and mi- 

 raculous life, and even say that she was the most meretricious 

 saint in the whole calendar ! 



On the 30th of August, the day on which the procession in 

 honor of Santa Rosa takes place, a compendium of her life, 

 (from which the above is extracted,) is sold in the plaza at a 

 dollar a copy. It is a small duodecimo volume of 123 pages, 

 containing the prayers of the novena, or nine days of devotion, 

 and a rude picture of the saint, under which is engraved, A 

 true likeness of Santa Rosa de Santa Maria. 



* Vicia de la gloriosa Santa Rosa de Santa Maria de Lima. Lima, 1818. 



