Saint Rosalia
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Rosalia (1130–1166), also called La Santuzza or "''The Little Saint''", and in Sicilian as "Rusulia", is the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
in Italy, Camargo, Chihuahua, and three towns in
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: El Hatillo, Zuata, and El Playon. She is especially important internationally as a saint invoked in times of
plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...
. From 2020 onwards she has been invoked by some citizens of Palermo to protect the city from
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


Biography

Rosalia was born of a
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
noble family that claimed descent from
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
. Devoutly religious, she retired to live as a
hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
in a cave on
Mount Pellegrino Mount Pellegrino is a hill facing east on the bay of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy, located north of the city. It is 606 metres (1,970 ft) high with panorama views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea. In his b ...
, where she died alone in 1166. Tradition says that she was led to the cave by two
angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
. On the cave wall she wrote ''"I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of ontedelle Rose, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ."''


1624 plague

In 1624, a
plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...
beset Palermo. During this hardship Rosalia reportedly 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 Rosalia was venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, and a sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered. Her post-1624 iconography is dominated by the work of the Flemish painter
Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...
, who was trapped in the city during the 1624–1625 quarantine, during which time he produced five paintings of Rosalia, now in
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,
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,
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and Palermo itself. In 1629 he also produced '' Saint Rosalia Interceding for the City of Palermo'' and '' Coronation of Saint Rosalia'' to assist Jesuit efforts to spread devotion to her beyond Sicily.


Controversy about the bones

In 1825, geologist
William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full ...
was in Palermo during his honeymoon and asked to see the bones of Rosalia. After an examination of the relics the geologist determined them to be "non-human", in fact he declared the relic was actually the bones of a goat. According to Buckland, priests said that Rosalia would not let him see her remains because he was not a Catholic Christian, and locked the relics away from people's eyes.


Veneration

The feast of Saint Rosalia is on 4 September. In
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
, the Festino di Santa Rosalia is held each year on 14 July, and continues into the next day. It is a major social and religious event in the city. Interestingly the devotion to Santa Rosalia is widespread among the large and mainly Hindu
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
community of Sri Lankan origin settled in Palermo. On 4 September, a tradition of walking barefoot from Palermo up to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia high up on Mount Pellegrino is observed in honor of Rosalia. In
Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...
communities in the United States, the July feast is generally dedicated to
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, particularly within the Catholic Church. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Ca ...
while the September feast, beginning in August, brings large numbers of visitors annually to the
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section of
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in New York City.


In biology

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.


In art

Saint Rosalia was an important subject in Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting, particularly in sacre conversazioni (group pictures of saints flanking the Virgin Mary) by artists such as Riccardo Quartararo, Mario di Laurito, Vincenzo La Barbara, and possibly
Antonello da Messina Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina ( 1430February 1479), was an Italian painter from Messina, active during the Early Italian Renaissance. ...
. But it was Flemish master
Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...
(1599–1637), who was caught in Palermo during the 1624 plague, who produced the most paintings of her (see also above). His depictions a young woman with flowing blonde hair, wearing a Franciscan cowl and reaching down toward the city of Palermo in its peril became the standard iconography of Rosalia from that time onward. Van Dyck's series of St. Rosalia paintings have been studied by
Gauvin Alexander Bailey Gauvin Alexander Bailey is an American-Canadian author and art historian. He is Professor and Alfred and Isabel Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queen's University. Bailey is a correspondent étranger at the Académie des Inscriptions et ...
and
Xavier F. Salomon Xavier F. Salomon (born 1979) is a British art critic and both Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick Collection in New York City, New York. Born in Rome to an English mother and Danish father, he has British citizenship an ...
, both of whom curated or co-curated exhibitions devoted to the theme of Italian art and the plague. In March 2020, ''The New York Times'' published an article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's painting of Saint Rosalia by Van Dyck in the context of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


See also

* '' Coronation of Saint Rosalia'' *
List of Catholic saints This is an incomplete list of people and angels whom the Catholic Church has canonized as saints. According to Catholic theology, all saints enjoy the beatific vision. Many of the saints listed here are to be found in the General Roman Calend ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosalia, Santa 1130 births 1166 deaths Sicilian saints Italian hermits 12th-century Christian saints Female saints of medieval Italy Angelic visionaries Religious leaders from Palermo Sicilian people of Norman descent 12th-century Sicilian people Medieval Italian saints 12th-century Norman women