Home parish: Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Haubstadt
Education: House of Formation, Evansville; Class of 2032
Saint: Rose
A simple faith
By Landon Mayer, Special to The Message
Editor’s note: This year, Diocesan seminarians focused their annual seminarian profiles on a saint or someone on the road to sainthood who gives them hope in honor of the Jubilee Year of Hope.
St. Rose of Lima, the first person born in the Americas to be canonized, exemplified a life of fervent adoration of the Lord, constant charity to the poor and fortitude in following her faith. Born Isabel Flores de Oliva to a noble family, she emulated St. Catherine of Siena with secret penances from a young age. She received the Eucharist daily, which was uncommon at the time, devoted herself to a life of prayer, worked to provide for the poor and eventually donned the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic.
The example set by St. Rose reminds me how obtainable holiness and sainthood can be. It offers me consolation when I encounter struggles in my faith and envision holiness as an unattainable dream. Her life serves as a humbling reminder of the simplicity of faith, to above all else, ardently desire a relationship with Christ and with all my heart to love and serve my brothers and sisters around me.
It’s easy to find hope in St. Rose for those struggling with holiness. Her friends and family, all those close to her, objected greatly to her desire to dedicate her life to Christ. She portrays someone, who not without familial difficulty, lived a simple, virtuous life in a very imitable way. As the patron of people ridiculed for their piety and for the resolution of family quarrels, we ask, St. Rose, pray for us.