Posted on 03/13/2020 9:03:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Residents of Sicilian capital pray for another miracle from Saint Rosalia, who they say rescued the city from a deadly plague in 1625
Legend has it that in 1625, as a plague swept Palermo and killed dozens of people each day, Saint Rosalia appeared before a man.
Rosalia, a young Sicilian hermit who died 500 years earlier, told him that if the people of Palermo walked in procession while carrying her relics, to be found in a grotto on Monte Pellegrino, then the “evil fever” would disappear.
After months of debate over the authenticity of that apparition, Saint Rosalia’s remains – among them a piece of her jaw and three fingers – were paraded through the city at an event attended by thousands of devotees. When the plague began to ebb, she was proclaimed the holy protector of the city.
Four hundred years later, the prayers that Palermitans offer to Saint Rosalia travel in chain messages on WhatsApp. They are asking her for another miracle: free the city of coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,000 people in Italy.
The country has been under a government-imposed lockdown to contain the outbreak. Since then, the streets of Palermo have been desertedt. It is a surreal scene in one of the noisiest cities in southern Italy.
So far, the virus has infected about 111 people in Sicily, a relatively small number compared with the rest of the country, but enough to scare people.
Sicilians are well aware of Lombardy’s wealth, where the outbreak has killed 500 people. If Covid-19 spreads with the same intensity in a disadvantaged region such as Sicily, the consequences for the population could be catastrophic.
The last emergency in Palermo was in 1992, when the city was invaded by thousands of soldiers. The enemy then, the mafia, had claimed
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
With Pope Marx still in Rome?
Good Luck...
Cardinal Marx is not the pope.
God will provide !!!!!!
A friend used to winter vacation there but gave up a few years ago because of the Muslim invasion:
MailOnline excerpt;
: 'Palermo is no longer an Italian town. It is no longer European. You can walk in the city and feel like you’re in Istanbul or Beirut.' Immigration to Italy soared by 90 per cent in the first three months of the year. The migrant population in Ballaró, the part of Palermo where the shooting took place, has risen from approximately five to 25 per cent since the migrant crisis began.
There is widespread concern in Italy that the number of new migrants exceeds the country’s capacity to cope - and the mafia is its biggest and most dangerous critic.
The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando said: ‘In the past, when the Mafia was more powerful, it prevented any immigrants from entering the city. Until I was 30 years old, I never saw an African or Asian in Palermo.
Has the town of Corleone been hit yet? Vito Antolini was from there.
Women are more dangerous than shotguns.
Good one. I bet you and I could go toe to toe with Godfather quotes.
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli”
I bet I could toe to toe with you on Scarface quotes. “Say hello to my little friend” :)
I live 25 miles east of Palermo. There are sections of the city with a lot of African and Pakistani immigrants but trust me, the city is overwhelmingly inhabited by indigenous Sicilians. Immigration has been slowed to a crawl over the last year or so. Sicilians are very anti-foreigner. I know that from personal experiences - hell, I’m 3/4 Italian and 1/4 San Marinese, look very Italian and still I get friction here. In my town, which has appx. 8,000 inhabitants, appx. 15 of them are African “refugees.” The locals watch them like hawks and seem very leery of them.
God often doesn't give us exactly what we ask for. He provided Italy with a bunch of nice immigrants from African and Asia.
They aren’t praying to God. They are praying to a dead human
God will provide !!!!!!”
Yes He will.
Part of that providing may be to urge us not to do foolish things . Or not foolishly testing Him.
I have family who grew up near Camporeale. I don’t remember which direction it is from Palermo, but it isn’t far.
He just made it back here south of Boston ten days ago and has already booked his place to stay in Ovierto, for next year.
Hopefully the virus problem will be over by then. -Tom
Gosh I love Orvieto! Also their wine is great too.
My friend and his wife years ago did winter vacations for a month in France.
The Muslims and the no-go Zones drove them pout.
They started vacationing for a month is Sicily until the Muslim invasion there a few years ago. They liked Sicily .
So a few years ago they found Ovierto and have been going there the last 3 years and love it.
They have booked next February in Ovierto. -Tom
I spell it the way an Italian friend pronounces it Ovierto. -Tom
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