Rose achieved sainthood in
only 18 years of life. Even as a child Rose had a great desire to pray and to aid the poor. While
still very young, she began a life of penance in her parents’ house. She was as generous to the poor
as she was strict with herself. At the age of 10 she became a Secular Franciscan and soon began
preaching in the streets about sin and the sufferings of Jesus.
Viterbo, her
native city, was then in revolt against the pope. When Rose took the pope’s side against the
emperor, she and her family were exiled from the city. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was
allowed to return. Her attempt at age 15 to found a religious community failed, and she returned to
a life of prayer and penance in her father’s home, where she died in 1251. Rose was canonized in
1457.
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