When St. Rose of Lima was baptized, she received the name of Isabel, out of compliment to a close relative. But after a few months, her mother perceiving the impression of a rose upon her face, named her child after that flower instead, and the Archbishop of Lima afterwards approved of this change, by conferring confirmation on the child under the name of Rose.

Little Rose was afterwards much troubled about the name, knowing the conflict it arose in her family, and suspecting that it was given her through a desire on the part of her mother to render her beauty more attractive. The child feared vanity more than she feared death. So, to set her mind at rest, and to be certain of doing God's will, Rose determined to lay her doubts before the Blessed Virgin, and to abide by her decision. For Rose, in all confidence, believed that Mary would make God’s Holy Will manifest to her. Kneeling down one day before the Blessed Virgin's statue, she implored our Lady to remove this darkness from her mind.

"My dearest mother," she sighed, "you know how much I love you, and that I would rather die than do anything displeasing to you. Help me, then, in this trouble, and tell me whether I ought to keep the new name which my mother has given me."

Our Lady could not resist this appeal, for she dearly loved the little one. She consoled her loving child, and with pleasure beaming from her eyes, she said, "Do not be uneasy, my child. This name of Rose is very pleasing to my Divine Son and to me."

This answer dispelled the child's doubts; she was glad, moreover, to find how tenderly her dear mother Mary loved her; and though from her earliest days her little heart was devoted to the Blessed Virgin, she was now bound to her even more closely. In this visit she also learned a lesson which she remembered all her life: that we can always have in the holy Mother of God an unfailing protector.

From then on, she placed the fullest confidence in our Blessed Lady, and when any doubt arose in St. Rose’s mind as to what she ought to do in a given situation, the Blessed Virgin was sure to receive a visit from her confiding little friend.