Saint Rosalia

Rosalia was born in 1130 and withdrew from the world to live as a hermit on Monte Pellegrino, outside Palermo. She died there in 1166, a virgin who had chosen solitude over the life her station might have offered. Centuries later, she became the city's patron saint, her intercession sought especially when disease arrived. That pull endured: she is venerated not only in Palermo but in Camargo, Chihuahua, and three Venezuelan towns. When the pandemic reached Sicily in 2020, some citizens invoked her name again, the old reflex unbroken.