Saints in Sicily

Santa Rosalia

Santa Rosalia (1130–1166) is the patron saint of Palermo. Her nickname is la Santuzza (“the Little Saint”).

Born into a Norman noble family, Rosalia embraced a devoutly religious life. She withdrew from the world to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino, where she passed away in solitude in 1166. According to tradition, two angels guided her to the cave, where she inscribed on the wall: “Ego Rosalia Sinibaldi Quisquine et Rosarum domini filia amore Domini mei Iesu Christi in hoc antro habitare decrevi.” (I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Monte delle Rose and Quisquina, have resolved to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.)

In 1624, during a plague in Palermo, Rosalia is said to have appeared first to a sick woman and later to a hunter. She revealed the location of her remains to the hunter and instructed him to bring her bones to Palermo and have them carried in procession through the city.

The hunter climbed Mount Pellegrino and found her remains as described. He followed her directions, and after her relics were carried around Palermo three times, the plague came to an end. From that moment, Rosalia was venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, and a sanctuary was erected in the cave where her relics were discovered.

 

St Rosalia crowned by the Madonna and Child, one of four illustrations to the Lives of the Saints; the saint kneeling at left with hands on her breast, crowned by the infant Christ, on the Virgin's lap in clouds above Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, with lines indented for transfer. Drawn by Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) in 1629. Van Dyck stayed for some time in Palermo, where he was quarantined during the plague in 1624.
(© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.)

 

A rather bizarre reliquary bust of Santa Rosalia (1626). Chiselled gilt and copper with fused parts. Previously owned by the Oratory of S.S. Lorenzo and Francesco, Palermo, now housed in the Diocesan Museum of Palermo (Museo Diocesano di Palermo).

 

 

Statue of Santa Rosalia outside the cathedral in Palermo. Santa Rosalia is the patron saint of Palermo.

 

This, I think, symbolically shows the plague being conquered by Rosalia.

 

 

The processional float of Santa Rosalia outside the cathedral.