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This is the story St. Rosalie, patroness of our parish.
She was a humble hermitress most of her life,
and there are few things known for sure about her due to the fact that she lead an unknown life, living first in a cave on Mount Coscina near Bivona and then on Mount Pellegrino near Palermo.
Rosalia was born at Palermo on the island of Sicily in 1130. She was the daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, who was an old descendant of the great king Charlemagne. Rosalia was born of a noble Norman family and therefore she was entitled to an easy life filled with wealth and all the joys of prosperity. She was said to have been remarkably beautiful and this caused her to be sought after by several lords of Sicily. Although deep within her heart she knew she did not desire men nor wealth. A very pious young lady, when she was just fourteen years old the Blessed Virgin appeared to her when she was transfixed in deep prayer. Our Lady advised Rosalia to leave the world thereby becoming a hermitress. Rosalia did as Our Lady told her and ran away to become a hermitress.
She left her home, her family, everyone for the love of Our Lord. She took only her crucifix and the clothes on her back.
There Rosalia wrote these words into the stone interior of the cave, "I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ". That engraving remains there to this day. Soon her family was scrambling to find her and so by the advice of an apparition of an angel, Rosalia went to live at Mount Pellegrino which was about three miles from her old family home in Palermo and the life she had sacrificed for the love of Our Lord. It is here that she would remain entirely hidden from the world for the next sixteen years. Here she practiced great mortification and constant communion with God. She committed herself to intense penances and prayers for the reparation of the sins of the world and the mercy of God to be laid upon humanity. For most of her years as a hermitress she lived only on the food of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.
She died alone in 1166 at Mount Pellegrino, unknown to the world. It wasn't until 1624 when a horrible plague had struck Palermo that Rosalia appeared at first to a sick woman and then a hunter to whom she directed the whereabouts of her remains. "Don't worry," she said "I will protect you and I will protect the city". She then revealed to the hunter the site of the cave in which she had lived as a hermitress and told him to go back to Palermo to alert the archbishop/rulers of the city. Her remains where carried in a reliquary in a public procession in 1624 and the plague ceased within three days. The people attributed this to the miraculous intercession of Rosalia on behave of the people of Sicily and made her patroness of Palermo. Sometime later Pope Urban VIII confirmed Palermo's choice of a patroness. In 1630 he added the name Saint Rosalia to the Roman Martyology, the Holy See's official catalogue of saints. Her fest day is celebrated September 4th.
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