Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), also called
La Santuzza or
"The Little Saint", is the
patron saintA patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges...
of
PalermoPalermo is a historic city in Southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
,
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
, El Hatillo,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, and Zuata,
AnzoateguiAnzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
.
According to legend, Rosalia was born of a Norman noble family that claimed descent from
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
. Devoutly religious, she retired to live as a
hermitA hermit is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion from society....
in a cave on
Mount PellegrinoMount Pellegrino faces east on the bay of Palermo, Sicily and is located north of the city of Palermo.It is 600 meters high with spectacular views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the ocean. In his book Travels in Italy, Goethe described Monte Pellegrino as the most beautiful promontory...
, where she died alone in 1166. Tradition says that she was led to the cave by two angels.
Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), also called
La Santuzza or
"The Little Saint", is the
patron saintA patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges...
of
PalermoPalermo is a historic city in Southern Italy, the capital of the autonomous region Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its rich history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
,
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
, El Hatillo,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, and Zuata,
AnzoateguiAnzoátegui State , is one of the 23 component states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beautiful beaches that attract many visitors...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
.
According to legend, Rosalia was born of a Norman noble family that claimed descent from
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
. Devoutly religious, she retired to live as a
hermitA hermit is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion from society....
in a cave on
Mount PellegrinoMount Pellegrino faces east on the bay of Palermo, Sicily and is located north of the city of Palermo.It is 600 meters high with spectacular views of the city, its surrounding mountains and the ocean. In his book Travels in Italy, Goethe described Monte Pellegrino as the most beautiful promontory...
, 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."
In 1624, a horrible plague haunted Palermo, and during this hardship St 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, and after the procession the plague ceased. After this St Rosalia would be venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, and a sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered.
The celebration, called the
festino, is still held each year on July 15. It is still a major social and religious event in Palermo. Also on September 4 there is an event related to the festino and St. Rosalia; a tradition of walking bare foot from Palermo up to Mount Pellegrino. In
Italian AmericanAn Italian American is an American of Italian ancestry, and/or may also refer to someone possessing Italian/American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States.-History:...
communities in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the July feast is generally dedicated to
Our Lady of Mount CarmelOur Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid 13th centuries...
while the September feast, beginning in August, brings large numbers of visitors annually to the Bensonhurst section of
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
In biology
Saint Rosalia was proposed as the patron saint of
evolutionary studiesEvolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication and diversity over time. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist...
in a classic paper by
G.E. HutchinsonGeorge Evelyn Hutchinson was an Anglo-American zoologist known for his studies of freshwater lakes and considered the father of American limnology....
. 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 boatmanCorixidae is a family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly known in the USA as water boatmen. They inhabit ponds and slow moving streams, where they swim near the bottom...
. The article, and its reference to St. Rosalia has lived on through the literature, often in the title of papers concerning
biodiversityBiodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems...
.