If one of the cards that God deals you is stunning good looks, is it acceptable to mar yourself? If the good looks are a burden, is it okay to set that burden down, or must it be a cross to bear?
Rose was born Isabella de Flores, but when she was just a baby her maid said that she was as beautiful as a rose; the name stuck. Rose's dad was a sixteenth century Spanish investor in Lima, Peru, making Rose the first saint to be born in the Western Hemisphere.
As Rose grew older, her exceptional beauty did not fade. Here I'm talking about the skin-deep beauty that attracts the attention of a lot of wealthy bachelors. That was a relief to her dad, whose mining investments had failed and was therefore struggling to keep food on the table and servants in the household.
Rose, however, had pledged herself to Jesus and would have no other husband. She did not like the attention from the bachelors, so she rubbed hot peppers on her face and lime on her hands to ruin her complexion. Bernard Bangley implies that she may have also been bulimic, though other sources don't mention that.
To help her family, Rose gardened and did needlework to sell. She moved out of her family's house and lived in a garden shed. Then she took began using her old bedroom as an infirmary, caring first for ill children and then old people. She is the patron of a lot of places, including all of Latin America, the Philippines, the West Indies, and Santa Rosa, California. She is also the patron of gardeners and florists, and is often enlisted to pray when one is struggling against vanity.
I find it funny (maybe sad, too) that the depictions all show her beautiful complexion, even though she demonstrated her religious zeal by destroying it. Even the one above left, where she looks like she is enduring great hardship, still a nice Oil of Olay complexion.
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