Saint Rosaria is the patron saint of Palermo. Her body was discovered in a grotto high above the city.

After refusing an arranged marriage, she joined the Basilian Order, living a religious life in a cave in a forest near Agrigento. Later Rosalia moved to Palermo, hiding in Monte Pellegrino.

A man went to Monte Pellegrino to kill himself after his wife died of the plague. Saint Rosalia appeared to him saying that the only way to save Palermo from the plague was to bring her bones through the town and when her bones were carried around town, the plague ceased, people suddenly recovered and the contamination stopped.