The patron saint of Lima and the Americas, Santa Rosa of Lima, lived as a woman of total adoration of God. She was a nun who never married and filled her days with prayer, hard work and painful self-torture. Her years of self-martyrdom ended in 1617 with her death at age 31. Her funeral was attended by the Viceroy, the archbishop and representatives of all religious fraternities and public authorities of Lima.
Rosas entered battle on many fronts. On one side stood the embattled Franciscans and on another the governor and his cronies – an assortment of soldier-colonists whom he had stripped of their commissions and encomiendas, and those who owed allegiance to him and no other man.
The schism grew when Father Fray Andres Juarez, a former Pecos guardian, came to seek reason with Rosas. He was beaten and humiliated for his troubles. The governor then sent the governor’s aide, Custos Salas, to chastise Father Vidania and his companions for their insolence toward Rosas. He bloodied the two and then banished them from the villa that night.
The fight was on, and Rosas’ enemies began to lose ground in the war for his soul. Contemporaries published vitriolic anti-Rosas literature, but a new school of nationalist writers, more rigorous in their historical method, produced pro-Rosas panegyrics that became integrated into Argentina’s national history after Rosas lost power (see Kroeber 1964). Both trends remain in some form in the 21st century. Rosas Santo Domingo
Leave a Reply