Editing Saint Rosalia (section)

== 1624 plague ==
In 1624, a [[Plague (disease)|plague]] beset Palermo. During this hardship Rosalia reportedly appeared first to a sick woman, then to a hunter, to whom she indicated where her remains were to be found. She ordered him to bring her bones to Palermo and have them carried in procession through the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.italianfolkmagic.com/blog/2017/8/26/santa-rosalia|title=Santa Rosalia|date= 4 September 2017|access-date=14 July 2018|publisher=Italian Folk Magic}}</ref>

The hunter climbed the mountain and found her bones in the cave as described. He did what she had asked in the apparition. After her remains were carried around the city three times, the plague ceased. After this Rosalia was venerated as the patron saint of Palermo, and a sanctuary was built in the cave where her remains were discovered.<ref>For the great expansion of Rosalia's popular cult in Italy as a result of the 1624 plague, see [[Franco Mormando]], "Response to the Plague in Early Modern Italy: What the Primary Sources, Printed and Painted, Reveal" in ''Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500–1800'', ed. G. Bailey, P. Jones, F. Mormando, and T. Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts: The Worcester Art Museum, 2005, pp. 32–34.</ref>

Her post-1624 iconography is dominated by the work of the Flemish painter [[Anthony van Dyck]], who was trapped in the city during the 1624–1625 quarantine, during which time he produced five paintings of Rosalia, now in [[Saint Rosalia (Anthony van Dyck)|Madrid]], [[Saint Rosalia Crowned by Angels (Houston)|Houston]], [[Saint Rosalia Crowned by Angels (London)|London]], [[Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague–Stricken of Palermo|New York]] and [[Saint Rosalia Crowned by Angels (Palermo)|Palermo itself]]. In 1629 he also produced ''[[Saint Rosalia Interceding for the City of Palermo]]'' and ''[[Coronation of Saint Rosalia]]'' to assist Jesuit efforts to spread devotion to her beyond Sicily.<ref>{{in lang|it}} Fiorenza Rangoni Gàl, ''Lo "Sposalizio mistico di S. Rosalia" nella chiesa del S. Salvatore a Vercana. Un problema risolto? Con alcune considerazioni sulla elaborazione dell’iconografia rosaliana di Anton van Dyck (2ª parte)'', in ''Quaderni della biblioteca del convento francescano di Dongo'', Dicembre 2013, pp. 54-63.</ref>