Monte Pellegrino Sicily Italy Grotto of Santa Rosalia 1130-1166 Black Madonna Santa Rosalia was the Daughter of Count Sinibaldo della Quisquina who abandoned her familys comfortable lifestyle and retreated here where she lived as a hermit and dedicated her life to prayer According to story a ship from North Africa carrying the Bubonic Plague landed here in 1624 the Epidemic the ensued caused the deaths of about one third of Palermos population The Epidemic raged until the Middle of July when a young man Matteo Bonello had a vision in whoch Rosalia appeared to him and directed him to her cave and instructed him to retrieve her bones and to carry them to the four corners of the city Bonello found the cave Rosalia’s bones and a rock with her name on it He carried the bones to the city and the plague was over
