Overview

• Santa Rosa de Lima, the first canonized saint born in the Americas, is commemorated on August 30 after Pope Clemente X set the date at her 1671 canonization.
• According to a long‑standing 1615 tradition, prayers led by Santa Rosa preceded a sudden storm that helped foil a Dutch raid on Lima.
• In Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the late‑August or early‑September “Tormenta de Santa Rosa” became a popular expectation tied to her feast.
• Argentina’s weather service notes the event is not fixed, with storms typically occurring a few days around August 30 or even within a wider two‑week window, and they are not always the year’s strongest.
• An analysis from the Buenos Aires observatory found storms in 57% of years between August 25 and September 4, and in 2024 the strongest activity aligned with August 30 due to a regional low‑pressure system.