On Friday, I stumbled upon Saint Rose of Lima. Not in the flesh, of course, but immortalised in this Recoleta Cemetery window. Why do I get the feeling she was trying to tell me something, to give me a clue about her life 400 years ago? What I saw was a steely eyed nun with an almost blinding light coming out of her third eye – our gateway to higher consciousness – and a stairway leading from her brow up to a cross in the sky. I had no idea who she was at the time.
When I got home, I typed ‘saint + roses + cross’ into Google (like you do) and was on the way to finding out. Saint Rose of Lima, the first canonised saint of the Americas, was a mystic and visionary. It appears she was devout almost from the moment she was born. She became a lay member of the Dominican religious order when she was 20 and lived in a hermitage in her parents’ garden, where she prayed and fasted and performed extreme acts of penance. We’re talking self-flagellation, a hair shirt and a metal-spiked crown, all to bring her closer to Christ’s suffering.
I found this line written by Saint Rose: ‘Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.’ Quite extraordinary, then, that the light and the reflection should conspire to create such a revealing image. I’m calling this photo Stairway to heaven. Looks as though she’s still seeing things and showing us her
path today.
For more information on Saint Rose, visit this rather fabulous website: http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-rose-of-lima/
I was born in Montreal in 1967, grew up in England and live between London and Buenos Aires. Like many, I came to Buenos Aires to dance tango and fell under the spell of this city where strangers talk to you, tango music seeps on to the streets and the ornate crumbling buildings speak of grander times. I love writing and crafting words – I've worked as a sub-editor for more than 20 years – and taking photographs.
I love the “glare”. I feel like i’m being chastised for not being a good person.
Do like your name – it brings this to mind – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGj2jrJk8
One of my favourites from the old days.
Hello Bob, Have just turned off my tango music to listen to Stairway to Heaven all the way through. I grew up with heavy metal, thanks to Iain! This was one route my story was going to go, using the lyrics, but I got waylaid with Saint Rose’s rather dramatic tale of starving and whipping herself. The Led Zeppelin song has some relevant lines: ‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings’. Photos too! And ‘There walks a lady we all know/Who shines white light and wants to show/How everything still turns to gold’. Interesting…