Saturday’s mystery of the letter writing at Santa Rosa was solved yesterday on my second visit to the church. 30th August is Dia de Santa Rosa de Lima, celebrating the saint who was born in the city and canonized in 1671. More importantly, I received a surprise day off work!
Many Limenos head to the Iglesia y Santuario de Santa Rosa in central Lima, so for the second time in one week and like the religious zealot that I am, I too joined this Peruvian pilgrimage.
As I headed from Plaza de Armas I was slowed by a procession carrying a statue of the Saint, surrounded by robed men, suited military personnel and riot police. Floral displays were laid out on the pavements and crowds gathered to watch the slow moving parade and listen to the accompanying music. As I walked through the streets in the direction of the church, there were all the signs that festive activity had been ongoing throughout the day: people selling food from open doorways, men with huge bunches of helium balloons and stalls with religious iconography. Departing somewhat from the pious theme, there was also a carriage offering rides with lifestyle toy Smurfs and a stall where families were having their photographs taken with equally sized Alvin and the Chipmunks characters.
As I neared the church the crowds increased. The road directly outside was closed to traffic and people thronged the streets, directed by policemen and herded into queues by metal barriers. The sellers I had noticed at the weekend were clearly having a field day. In addition to the wheeler-dealers with their rose headed notepaper and envelopes, there were also children on their first rung of the business ladder clutching bags of plastic biros for sale.
I followed the crowds and went into the church itself. At the front was a huge display of flowers around a statue of Santa Rosa, and all around was a fever of epistolomania. Peruvians of all ages sat at the edges of the church scribbling letters with their newly purchased biros, whilst those in the center were clutching their sealed envelopes. My earlier thoughts about the letters being like some religious Christmas wishlist were, in fact, not too far wrong. The congregants write letters to Santa Rosa expressing their desires, which are then dropped into the wishing well in the courtyard I had visited at the weekend. With the numbers of attendants at the church yesterday though, it seemed impossible for many to make these deliveries themselves. Instead, like some Christmas elf of Jesus , there was a small woman wearing a tabard, running around the church with a box collecting letters from outstretched hands.
Back outside, I discovered why this woman was so necessary, as a huge queue for the wishing well area snaked around the church and off down the street into the distance. I do like to participate in these cultural events, but joining the queue was a step too far! Instead, not content with the street-sellers product range I headed into one of several religious shops around the church which were no doubt doing very well today. In addition to the necklaces and books of the street sellers, this shop also featured such must-haves as the plastic baby Jesus, in various sizes and states of undress and also, clearly trying to extend their audience and cater for all faiths, figurines of Indian elephants and Buddha.
With the mystery of the letter writing solved, and the case of Santa Rosa closed, I left the crowded church and headed home to the relative quiet of Miraflores.