St. Rosalia - English

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St. Rosalia

Hermitess, greatly venerated at Palermo and in the whole of Sicily of which she in patroness. Her feast is celebrated on 4 September. A special feast of the translation of her relics is kept in Sicily 15 June. There is no account of her before Valerius Rossi (about 1590), though churches were dedicated in her honour in 1237. Her Vita (Acta SS., 11 Sept., 278) which, according to the Bollandist J. Stilting, is compiled from local traditions, paintings, and inscriptions, says: She was the daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Quisquina and of Rosa, descended from the family of Charlemagne; in youthful days she left home and hid herself in a cave near Bivona and later in another of Monte Pellegrino near Palermo, in which she died and was buried. In 1624 her remains were discovered and brought to the Cathedral of Palermo. Urban VIII put her name into the Roman Martyrology. Whether before her retirement she belonged to a religious community, is not known. The Basilians, in their Martyrology, claim her as a member. She is often represented as a Basilian nun with a Greek cross in her hand. Many of her pictures may be found in the Acta SS.

The "Festino"

Festino of Saint Rosalia

The Festino, in the middle of July, is the climax of Palermo's year and is hard to describe.

It is an immense popular ex voto to St Rosalia, for grace received.

In 1624, she saved the people of Palermo from the plague when St Agata, St Oliva, St Ninfa and St Cristina, squared up at the Quattro Canti, had failed totally.

The plague arrived on a cargo ship from North Africa and spread quickly through the city. No remedy could be found for the scourge that even struck thè viceroy Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy.

The population turned to thè saints, praying and hearing them in procession until someone remembered Rosalia, a saint of Palermo recorded in 1205 and who died as a hermit on Mt Pellegrino.

Her bones, rediscovered and carried around thè city, miraculously halted the plague.

The "Santuzza", thè term of endearment used by the locals to invoke her, is carried triumphantly on an enormous wagon conveying thè grandiosity of Palermo - an immense ship-stern with numerous musicians on board.

The wagon is a sort of baroque civic emblem, unique in Europe, to illustrate thè wealth and thè magnificence of this Joytul Palermo".

This is the last ot Europe's great baroque festivals.

The Festino originated as a great folk festival with hot weather, lights, opulence, colours, smells, street feasts, shouting and laughter.

There were street parades with tradesmen, nobility on horseback and representatives of the Senato (municipal administration), all in great pomp with acrobats, fire-eaters, ragamuffins and elegant ladies and the Berber "Cassaro horses" competed for the Paliu. From all parts of the city, locals and visitors still flock along the old Cassaro (now Corso Vittorio Emanuele), from Palazzo Reale to the Marina.

Excited, shouting people eat the many delicacies of the old street cuisine with their hands as they await the "fuochi di gioia"- the triumphal fireworks that rise over the sea.