Ending the North End’s summer of religious tributes to patron saints is the Santa Rosalia Di Palmero Society with a mass and procession on Sunday September 12, 2010.
Born in 1130 and dying young in 1166, was a rich an noble maiden of Palermo’s Norman origin, Rosalia Sinibaldi. Rosalia retreated to a mountain, presumably as a nun, to lead a life as a hermit renouncing the comforts of wealth and nobility. After centuries, in 1624, a raging fever in Palermo decimated the people until the spirit of Rosalia appeared in the dream of a plague patient, then to a huntsman. In the latter, Rosalia pointed the way to find her bones and asked to take them in procession through the city. So, it was done. The passing of the remains healed the sick, totally freeing the city in a few days of this horrible disease. Since then, the procession is repeated every year with the aim of continuing the centuries of the ritual of deliverance from the evils that afflict humanity.
Facebook page for the Santa Rosalia Di Palermo Society of Boston
