St. Rosalia

St. Rosalia (c. 1130 – c. 1166), affectionately called "la Santuzza" (the little saint) by the Sicilians, was according to tradition a young noblewoman of Palermo, descended from Norman royalty and connected to the court of King Roger II. Renouncing the prospects of her rank, she withdrew from the world to live as a hermit, first in a cave near her family's lands and later in a grotto on Monte Pellegrino overlooking Palermo, where she spent her days in prayer and penance until her death in solitude.

Her relics lay forgotten for centuries until 1624, when, during a devastating plague in Palermo, her bones were discovered in the mountain grotto after she appeared in visions directing that they be found and carried in procession through the city. When this was done, the plague ceased, and the grateful Palermitani acclaimed her their patron and deliverer. Her grotto shrine and the great July festival in her honor remain central to the devotion of Palermo, of which she is the beloved patroness.