Saint Rosalia

For other meanings of Santa Rosalia, see Santa Rosalia (disambiguation) and Santa Rosalía (disambiguation).

Saint Rosalia
220px Santa Rosalia, depicted on the right, before St. Mary by Anthony van Dyck
Virgin
Born	1130 Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily
Died	1166 (aged 35–36) Mount Pellegrino, Kingdom of Sicily
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	July 14 (Festino), September 4 (Pilgrimage on Monte Pellegrino)
Attributes	Depicted as a young woman, sometimes holding a cross, book, or skull, and also a spray of lilies. Some images show her holding a chisel and hammer with which she carved her dedication (see main story). She is also seen wearing a crown of roses, attended by winged angels, and often with a view through a cave opening of Palermo Harbour.
Patronage	Palermo; El Hatillo; Zuata Anzoátegui; Italian fishermen of Monterey, California

Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), also called La Santuzza or "The Little Saint", and in local dialect as "Rusalia", is the patron saint of Palermo in Italy, and three towns in Venezuela: El Hatillo, Zuata, and Anzoátegui.

Biography

File:Saint Rosalia statue (Monterey, California).jpg

A statue of Saint Rosalia in Monterey, California.

Rosalia was born of a Norman noble family that claimed descent from Charlemagne. Devoutly religious, she retired to live as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino, where she died alone in 1166. Tradition says that she was led to the cave by two angels. On the cave wall she wrote "I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ." The feast of Saint Rosalia is on September 4th. In 1624, a plague beset Palermo. During this hardship Saint Rosalia appeared first to a sick woman, then to a hunter, to whom she indicated where her remains were to be found. She ordered him to bring her bones to Palermo and have them carried in procession through the city.

The hunter climbed the mountain and found her bones in the cave as described. He did what she had asked in the apparition. After her remains were carried around the city three times, the plague ceased. After this Saint Rosalia was venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, and a sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered.

Upon examination by a renowned geologist and palaeontologist, William Buckland, the bones of St Rosalia were thought to be those of a goat.

Veneration

File:Santa Rosalia.jpg

A statue of St. Rosalia being carried through the streets of Bivona, Sicily.

The celebration, called the festino, is still held each year on July 15, and continues into the next day. It is still a major social and religious event in Palermo. In 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2001 the celebration has been produced by Studio Festi.

Also on September 4 there is an event related to the festino and St. Rosalia; a tradition of walking barefoot from Palermo up to Mount Pellegrino. In Italian American communities in the United States, the July feast is generally dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel while the September feast, beginning in August, brings large numbers of visitors annually to the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in New York City.

In biology

Saint Rosalia was proposed as the patron saint of evolutionary studies in a paper by G.E. Hutchinson. This was due to a visit he paid to a pool of water downstream from the cave where St. Rosalia's remains were found, where he developed ideas based on observations of water boatman.

See also

• List of Catholic saints
• Cities named for Saint Rosalia

External links

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