4 September – Saint Rosalia

[Rich]

4 September – Saint Rosalia

(c 1130-c 1160)
Virgin, Recluse, known as “La Santuzza” – “The Little Saint.” Born in
c1130 at Palermo, Sicily and died in c 1160 at Mount Pellegrino,
Italy, of natural causes. Patronages – Vocations in Italy, Italian
fishermen of Monterey, Baucina, Benetutti, Bivona, Campofelice di
Roccella, Delia, Isola delle Femine, Lentiscosa, Palermo, Pegli,
Racalmuto, San Mango Cilento, Santo Stefano Quisquina, Sicily, Vicari
– all in Italy and of California. Additional Memorial – 14 July
(Festino).

The Roman Martyrology states of her today: “At Palermo. the birthday
of St Rosalia, Virgin, a native of that City, issued from the Royal
blood of Charlemagne. For the love of Christ, she forsook the princely
Court of her father and led a heavenly life alone in the mountains and
caverns.“

Not much is known about the life of Santa Rosalia. She was born to a
noble family, which claimed descent from Charlemagne She rejected that
life, being devoutly religious, instead pursuing one as a recluse in a
cave on Mount Pellegrino. 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 [Monte] delle Rose and Quisquina, have taken the
resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus
Christ.” She died there alone in 1166.

In 1624 a plague struck Palermo. During this hardship, Rosalia
appeared, firstly 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.
Rosalia was immediately venerated as the Patron Saint of Palermo and a
Sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered.

After she saved the City of Palermo from the plague, St Rosalia became
known as a fierce protectress. She was credited with defending the
people from earthquakes and storms and was appealed to in prayers for
a safe and successful harvest.

In Palermo, the Festino di St 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 St Rosalia is widespread among the large
and mainly Hindu Tamil community of Sri Lankan origin settled in
Palermo.

On 4 September, a tradition of walking barefoot from Palermo up to
Mount Pellegrino is observed in honour of Rosalia.

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.

But it was Flemish master Anthony van Dyck (1599–1637), who was caught
in Palermo during the 1624 plague, who produced the most paintings of
her (see also above). She is depicted as a young woman with flowing
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 and Xavier F Salomon, 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.

https://anastpaul.com/2021/09/04/


Saint Quote:
Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What
we really are consists in what God knows us to be.
--Saint John Berchmans

Bible Quote:
"I hate, I scorn your festivals, I take no pleasure in your solemn
assemblies. When you bring me burnt offerings...your oblations, I do
not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat
cattle. Spare me the din of your chanting; let me hear none of your
strumming on lyres, but let justice flow like water and uprightness
like a never-failing stream!" [Amos 5:21-24] RSVCE


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A Prayer of Petition

Let us adore and give thanks to God the Father everlasting, Who, of
the great love He bore us, was pleased to send His only-begotten Son
into the world to suffer and die on the gibbet of the Cross; and let
us beseech Him, for the sake of His passion and death and by the
intercession of Saint Gabriel, that most loving follower of our
crucified Lord, to grant us the favor for which We pray [here mention
your request].

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Let us adore and give thanks to God the eternal Son, Who, becoming man
and dying for us upon the Cross, left us Mary most holy to be our
Mother; and let us beseech Him, by the merits of this sorrowful Virgin
Mother and by the intercession of Saint Gabriel, who was her most
devoted servant, to grant us the favor for which we pray [here mention
your request].
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.