In Italy, almost every city has its own patron saint, and that saint’s feast day is often the most important celebration of the year. In Palermo, that saint is Santa Rosalia. Or, as we affectionately call her, la Santuzza.
It’s not easy to translate the word beautifully. It is something like a tender, affectionate version of the word “saint.”
The day of our Santuzza is July 14th, and for weeks beforehand the city is already busy preparing for the celebrations. At least, that’s what we residents get to see. Behind the scenes, preparations last almost an entire year. The festivities themselves stretch over several weeks as well.
But today, let me tell you a little about the stories and legends surrounding Santa Rosalia herself.
The beginning of her story is distinctly feminine and could easily serve as the plot of a melodrama.
A young girl living at court was promised in marriage to a nobleman. She defied her father’s wishes and fled her home, finding a new refuge on Mount Pellegrino.
There, in a cave beside an ancient altar, she devoted her life to prayer and lived for eight years until her death.
Four hundred and fifty years later, her story continued.
In the seventeenth century, the plague reached Palermo. The disease claimed thousands of lives. One day, a Palermitan climbed the mountain to a monastery to fulfil a vow. According to his account, the Virgin Mary and Rosalia appeared to him. They showed him a place where he would find a treasure — a saint.
The story becomes rather complicated from that point on, because finding bones in the mountains was not enough. The Church wanted proof that they truly belonged to Rosalia. And, for that matter, why should she be considered a saint at all?
This is where another unfortunate resident of Palermo enters the story.
His young wife had died, and in his despair he decided to end his life on that same mountain. But Rosalia appeared to him and told him that the bones were truly hers and that, if the plague was to end, they had to be carried in procession through the city.
People believed him. The remains that had been found on the mountain were brought down into Palermo. The plague ended soon afterwards, and Santa Rosalia replaced the four saints who had been the city’s patronesses until then. Those are the four saints you can still see today on the corners of Quattro Canti.
I spent most of my life in places where there is no tradition of patron saints.
And I will honestly admit that today there is a small ceramic Santuzza on my terrace, fixed there with my own hands.
And I like that very much.