Saint Rose of Lima

The Incas were not dark-skinned like the Aztec or the American Indian. They were white-skinned. The children born of Spanish and Inca unions were usually breathtakingly beautiful. Rose was a stunning, very fair child with light brown hair. She was part of a trio of powerful men and women in the Church of the early days of Peru. St. Martin de Porres, and St. Toribio de Mongrevo, Archbishop of Lima, were both from the same time period, and from the same city, Lima, Peru. Martin was a very close friend to Rose and Archbishop Toribio baptized and confirmed her.
Rose could very easily have come by her strong faith belief as a result of a Caucasian evangelist who came to the land of the Incas centuries before the Spanish arrived. Legend says that it could have been St. Thomas the Apostle. It could also have been St. Brendan of Ireland, who voyaged up and down the western hemisphere in the Sixth Century. St. Brendan is credited with having brought the Faith to the Mexican Indians. Whatever the case, and whoever the Lord sent to touch the hearts of His children in this, His New World, the evangelist taught the people a set of values very similar to those of the Catholic Church. He taught them about the Cross. He even put a Cross on top of the hill of Cuzco, one of the main cities of Peru.