Magazine  (1921)  
 
The name R. sancta given by Richard to this Abyssiniana Rose is unfortunately antedated by R. sancta Andrews, Roses, II, t. 98 (1828) and cannot be retained. The exact systematic position of Andrew's R. sancta is not clear; it bears some resemblance to R. chinensis var. minima Rehd. (R. Lawrenceana Sweet), as Miss Wilmott (Gen. Rose II. 338) points out, but the slender infrasipular paired prickles and the stipitate-glandular pedicels suggest relation to the Cinnamomeae.

Book  (15 Jan 1912)  Page(s) Vol. III, Part XVII, p.338.  
 
reprint by Marion McKinsey, 1991 McKinsey’s page No. 394
. ….Andrews Rosa sancta is a little Rose which Knight received from Italy in 1826 under the name of Rosa di San Giovanni and has nothing whatever to do with Rosa sancta of Richard; it has, in fact, more resemblance to Rosa Lawranceana, the Fairy Rose of old gardens.

Book  (1828)  Page(s) pl. 98.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosa sancta St. John's Rose
Specific Character
Rose with round seed-buds, and peduncles hispid: flowers small, flesh-coloured: leaves winged: leaflets spreading, lance-shaped, small, with finely sawed margins. shub: branches decumbent: spines of the branches grow in pairs.
Our figure of the elegant dwarf shrub was made from a plant in the Nursery of Mr. Knight, who receive it from Italy in the summer of 1826, under the title of St. John's Rose. The small flower beneath is the the size and colour of one half the plant, as it flowered in the early part of the summer; but in the autumn the remainder of the bloom was, as we have represented them, larged and rich in colour, evidently a state of perfection; the earlier pale imperfect blossoms might have been occasioned by some casual blight, removed by the warmth of autumn, or perhaps by an attempt to retrograde, sometimes the case with new Roses cultivated in an uncongenial soil.