Saint of the day September 4: Saint Rosalía. Catholic Saints

Every September 4, the Church remembers Saint Rosalía, also known as Rosalía of Palermo, a hermit from the 12th century, who is counted among the holy virgins of the Church. Rosalía lived a life of prayer, contemplation and penance, away from the noise of the world.

Saint Rosalía is the patron saint of people who suffer from infectious diseases or are victims of the plague; she is their faithful intercessor in difficult times.

flower of holiness

Born with the name Rosalia Sinibaldi, she belonged to a family from Normandy (France) that claimed descent from Charlemagne. Her biographers agree that she was born around the year 1130 in Palermo, the island of Sicily (Italy), which is why she is also considered the patron saint of that city.

The name of the saint, ‘Rosalía’, is a contraction of the names of two types of flowers: ‘rose’ and ‘lilia’ (the common name given to the lily or lily).

The Sicilians affectionately call Saint Rosalía “Santuzza” (Little Saint), in reference to her short stature, since it is known that she was a particularly small woman with a fine build.

The highest honor

Rosalía was educated at the city court, and because of her beauty and kind treatment she became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Margaret of Navarre, wife of King William II. Despite her favorable social position, she left her home and the royal palace to dedicate herself completely to what filled her soul: the life of prayer, frequent and intense dealings with the Lord.

She was welcomed into the Basilian monastery of Santo Salvador in Palermo, but the pressure exerted by her parents and the man to whom she was betrothed forced her to flee to the outskirts of Bivona, where she took refuge in a cave. As the days went by and as her family situation did not change, Rosalía was forced to hide in another cave, this time, located on Monte Peregrino, near Palermo, where she would die years later between the years 1156 and 1566.

According to the Bollandist priest (a Jesuit dedicated to collecting data on the saints), Fr. Juan Stilting, Rosalía was the daughter of Sinibaldo, count of Quisquina and Monte Rosa (current territory of Santo Stefano Quisquina and Bivona), and was indeed a descendant of Emperor Charlemagne -which entailed his recognition as part of the highest European nobility of that time-.

Sicily and the disappearance of the plague

According to tradition, thanks to Rosalía’s intercession, the plague that devastated Sicily in 1624 was reduced, the year in which her remains were found. That ancient tradition indicates that the saint appeared to a hunter to lead him to the place where her remains lay. Saint Rosalía showed her the route that led to the mountain in whose cave she lived and died; Later, the saint commissioned the man to take his remains from there and take them in a procession to be properly buried.

When the Sicilian people learned of the apparition, expeditions were organized to find the remains of the saint in the indicated mountainous area. After these were found, miraculously, the plague that devastated the city disappeared within a few days. This is the reason why the inhabitants of the Mediterranean island named Rosalía as her patron saint and her remains were transferred to the interior of the Palermo cathedral.

Some time later, Pope Urban VIII – pontiff between 1623 and 1644 – officially declared the authenticity of the relics and ordered that Sicily commemorate its saint every July 15, while the rest of the universal Church must do so on September 4, the day in which both the discovery and the transfer of the saint’s relics are remembered.

Veneration and iconography

The iconography represents Saint Rosalía as a hermit, outdoors, near a cave, and, sometimes, dressed in the Augustinian habit. She also usually appears crowned with roses – in allusion to her name – standing next to a crucifix and a skull, in allusion to the ascetic life she led.

The cult of Saint Rosalia was initially promoted by Benedictine monks and has become universally popular. His intercession is requested in difficult times, against infectious diseases and, in particular, against the plague. Just a couple of years ago, her devotees entrusted themselves to her to ask for an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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If you want to know more about this saint, you can read the following article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/Santa_Rosalia.