Rosalia’s Silver Urn

July 15 in Palermo is a day of masses, prayers, and concerts at the Cathedral in honor of Santa Rosalia. At 7PM, down il Cassaro, the Archbishop and Mayor of Palermo will lead a solemn procession featuring the silver urn containing the sacred relics of La Santuzza. With the intention to reenact the purification of the city that Santa Rosalia instructed in 1624, civil and military groups, clergy, seminarians, and various parishes and confraternaties of Palermo, in addition to a number of marching bands, will accompany the sacred urn (pictured in its chapel in the Palermo Catthedral).

They will walk from the Cathedral down Corso Vittorio Emanuele to Quattro Canti (the main intersection of the city), down Via Maqueda to the Discesa dei Giovenchi, then to Piazza S. Onofrio, and on to Via Panneria, Piazza Monte di Pietà (the first location of a shrine dedicated to “la Santuzza,” the Saint), and then return to the cathedral by way of Via Judica, Via Gioiamia, and Via M. Bonello. At 10:30 PM, once the relics return to the Cathedral, in its piazza, there will be a fireworks display. And thus concludes the 394th Festino di Santa Rosalia, the Patroness of Palermo.

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