Rosalia (Rusolia), Saint

ROSALIA (Rusolia), Saint. - Patroness of Palermo since the 17th century, the "santuzza," as the people call her, led an eremitical life in the 2nd half of the 12th century in caves of the Quisquina range and of Monte Pellegrino near the city; local historians have her die at a young age in 1160.

Before the 17th century there is only scant information about her cult, which had an extraordinary diffusion after the discovery of her body (15 July 1624) and the cessation of the plague that was raging in the city of Palermo (July 1625) and on the island (June 1626) through the intercession of the saint. The accounts concerning the life of St. R. are later than that date and have no historical value. The inscription found, 40 days after the discovery of the body, in the cave of the Quisquina range, supposed to be in the saint's own hand, calls her the daughter of Duke Sinibaldo, who lived in the time of Roger II (d. 1154). Urban VIII had inserted in the Roman Martyrology (1630) the date of the discovery of the body (15 July) and the presumed date of her death (4 Sept.). The caves inhabited by R. were transformed into richly adorned chapels (17th-18th centuries) and her body rests in a sumptuous chapel of the Palermo Cathedral, enclosed in a rich reliquary casket, executed by various artists in 1631. Sicilian emigrants have spread her cult in all the regions of the world frequented by them.

A. Pietro Frutza

FOLKLORE

An image, before which even Goethe knelt (Italian Journey, letter of 6 April 1787), venerated in the chapel of St. R. on Monte Pellegrino and variously reproduced in popular prints, represents the Saint lying as if in ecstasy within the hollow of a grotto, dressed in the habit of penance, illuminated by a beam of light from above, with a skull, a book and a bowl beside her, symbols of the eremitic life, while a little angel stands at her side with lily branches in hand and at the entrance of the cave a young hunter appears: this is, as the legend explains, the hunter Vincenzo Bonello who discovers the Saint's relics. In memory of this discovery and of the translation that is said to have put an end in 1625 to a terrible plague, a solemn festival is celebrated in Palermo in mid-July, enthusiastically described in past centuries by Italian and foreign writers as among the most characteristic manifestations of Sicily and of all Italy: of which today the most remains only in memory and in the saying "Mi cunti li cincu jorna di lu Fistinu". Drawn by long lines of oxen or mules (up to 24 pairs!) the triumphal cart paraded through the main streets of the city, built in the shape of a ship according to a design renewed each year (the designs are preserved in the National Museum of Palermo), sumptuously illuminated and adorned with garlands of flowers, embellished with depictions of the legend, at the top of which shone, suspended on a cloud, the statue of the "santuzza", her head crowned with roses, taller than the roofs of the houses: "la muntagnedda d'oru" the common people of the province called this mighty machine, which every 50-60 paces stopped for the singing of the frottola, an ever-new hymn in honor of St. R. Other elements that gave life and scenic character to the festive rite were the "beneficiata" in Piazza Marina, which was a lottery with prizes in money, drapery and paintings depicting Palermo and St. R.; the race of the Berbers, that is of horses sometimes free and sometimes ridden by children of 12-14 years, covered with elder leaves, with the prize of a gilded wooden eagle; the procession with the silver urn containing the Saint's relics, carried by ancient privilege by the masons and preceded by the biers of the other saints, to the sound of many drums; the fireworks and the splendid illumination of the Cassaro, the Marina and the Cathedral. The Saint is also celebrated on 4 September, the day of her liturgical commemoration, with a pilgrimage to the grotto in which all the faithful of the province take part and with particular devotion the Albanians of the Piana: the Palermitans prefer to make the pilgrimage in May, and it then takes on the character of a spring rite. Of the three principal motifs of the legend (birth, infancy, retreat into solitude; temptations; liberation of Palermo from the plague) taken up poetically by the people, the contrast between the penitent virgin and the tempting demon is the most recurrent and most vivid in the popular songs, which are in narrative meters (Sicilian stories in octaves of hendecasyllables; Fullone too composed an epic poem on St. R.) and in lyric meters (quatrains or sestets of octonarii), widespread, in this latter form, also in Calabria, Lucania, Apulia, Campania, Abruzzo and the Marches. Even broader are the areal boundaries of the cult, which has spread to Spain (famous the "Fiesta del Cuadro" of 15 July at Torredembarra), France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Malta and even Africa and South America: St. R. is everywhere invoked against the plague.

From the critical-comparative point of view it is worth noting that some manifestations of the cult of St. R. are linked with that of St. Rose (v.): besides the common date of the feast on 4 September, one should note the similarity of the two machines, the frequent substitution in popular songs of the name of Rose for that of R., and as regards the legend the common motif of the discovery of the bones and of the liberation from the plague.

Giovanni Bronzini