The best information we have of St. Rosalia’s life comes from the evidence we have of the medieval Church’s devotion to her. Churches that are dedicated to her, inscriptions, and paintings reveal details of her life.

She was born in Sicily around 1130 to a family of nobles; she is said to be a descendant of Charlemagne.

While she was still young, she felt a call to dedicate her life to God. She left home to seek holiness in solitude and went to live in a cave near her parent’s home and spent the rest of her life in it. She lived her whole life apart from the world, consumed in prayer, and died alone and forgotten.

Five hundred years later, as a plague was troubling the nearby city of Palermo, she appeared in a vision to a victim and led him to the cave where she died. Her bones were discovered, and inscribed on the wall were these words: “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.” Also found were a clay crucifix, a Greek cross of silver, and a string of beads (an early form of the Rosary).

Her relics were carried in procession through Palermo. Three days later the plague ended, her intercession was credited as having saved the city, and she was declared its patron.

Relics of St. Rosalia rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and her image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.

St. Rosalia, who gave her life to prayer and saved a city, pray for us!