Anthony van Dyck and the 1624 Plague: The Creation of Saint Rosalia's Iconography

Pintura que representa a Santa Rosalía de Palermo en la gloria.

The Outbreak of May 1624 and the Quarantine in Palermo

On 7 May 1624, a merchant vessel arriving from Tunis sailed into the port of Palermo, carrying cargo infected with bubonic plague. Within weeks, contagion spread through the densely populated quarters of the Sicilian capital. The municipal administration, headed by Viceroy Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy and guided by civic records preserved by figures such as Senate secretary Filippo Paruta, enacted strict sanitary cordons, house quarantines, and commercial restrictions to arrest the mortality rate. Despite these measures, daily fatalities mounted rapidly, destabilising the civic and spiritual life of the city.

Among those caught within the quarantined city walls was the twenty-five-year-old Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. Having travelled across Italy to study the Venetian colourists and execute aristocratic portraits in Genoa and Rome, Van Dyck had arrived in Sicily in the spring of 1624 at the invitation of the Viceroy. The unexpected onset of the epidemic halted maritime travel, leaving the artist confined to Palermo during the absolute height of the health crisis.

The Twelfth-Century Hermit and the Pre-1624 Devotional Void

Before the events of 1624, the historical memory of saint rosalia of palermo remained marginal in official civic liturgies. According to Norman-period traditions, Rosalia was born around 1130, ostensibly attached to the noble household of Count Sinibaldo during the reign of Roger II. She abandoned the courtly environment of the Conca d'Oro for a life of anachoretic solitude, retreating first to the mountainous caves of Santo Stefano Quisquina in the Sicani mountains before establishing a permanent hermitage on Monte Pellegrino overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Hagiographical accounts record her death in isolation on Monte Pellegrino on 4 September, with early chronological traditions dividing the date between 1166 and 1170. For nearly four and a half centuries, Rosalia had no major public altar within the city centre, remaining an obscure figure in comparison to the established civic patronesses of Palermo: Saint Agatha, Saint Christina, Saint Nympha, and Saint Olivia.

The Excavations on Monte Pellegrino

On 15 July 1624, guided by local testimonies and devotional recollections regarding the hermit's cave, searchers excavated the limestone recesses of Monte Pellegrino. Embedded within a deposit of calcareous rock and stalagmitic crust, workmen uncovered a cache of human skeletal remains. The unearthing was immediately interpreted by the afflicted populace as a providential sign amidst the relentless plague.

The ecclesiastical authority, directed by Cardinal Archbishop Giannettino Doria, acted with bureaucratic caution. Rather than offering immediate ecclesiastical confirmation, Doria impanelled a formal commission of physicians, anatomists, and theologians to inspect the encrusted bones, determine their nature, and confirm whether they belonged to an ancient human burial consistent with the ascetic traditions of the mountain.

Anthony van Dyck's Formula for the Anachoretic Saint

Observing the unfolding crisis and the subsequent theological debates from his studio in Palermo, Anthony van Dyck was commissioned to produce images that could give immediate visual form to the newly discovered relics. Prior to 1624, no consistent visual type existed for the saint in European painting. Working in close proximity to both the epidemic and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, Van Dyck synthesised traditional anachoretic themes with the dynamic requirements of Counter-Reformation devotional painting.

Van Dyck depicted saint rosalia of palermo as a solitary young woman garbed in coarse, earth-toned robes of a hermit, her long golden hair flowing freely over her shoulders. He set her on the dramatic rocky ledge of Monte Pellegrino, establishing an intimate balance between ascetic mortification and celestial grace that became the definitive standard for European artists throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Iconographic Attributes: Skulls, Lilies, and Roses

In Van Dyck’s canvases, every component of the composition served a defined theological and civic function. The painter introduced a specific arrangement of symbolic attributes that subsequent masters—such as Pietro Novelli and later Spanish and Italian painters catalogued in collections like the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando—would systematically replicate:

  • The Skull and Cave: Placed near the saint's hand or at her feet, the human skull signified anachoretic contemplation, mortality, and the specific physical reality of the bones discovered on Monte Pellegrino.
  • The Crown of Roses: Referring directly to the etymology of her name (rosa-lia), woven roses symbolised both her virginity and her heavenly reward, often presented to her by attending putti.
  • The White Lilies: Included alongside the roses to underscore purity and her complete renunciation of worldly aristocratic marriage.
  • The Open Book and Crucifix: Traditional markers of anachoretic prayer, framing her solitary dialogue with the divine in the wilderness.

The Topographical Cityscape and the Lazar House

A crucial innovation in Van Dyck’s iconography was the explicit incorporation of the afflicted city of Palermo into the background of the painting. In his compositions, saint rosalia of palermo does not merely pray for personal sanctification; she turns back to point downwards toward the Gulf of Palermo and the harbor district below.

Van Dyck rendered accurate topographical views of the Conca d'Oro, the distinctive profile of Monte Pellegrino, and the smoking quarantine fires lit around the city walls. He visibly included the lazar house (the quarantine hospital) and ships anchored under naval isolation in the bay. This compositional device firmly positioned Rosalia as the direct intercessor standing between the wrath of the plague and the physical survival of the city's inhabitants.

The Authentication by Cardinal Giannettino Doria in 1625

While the plague continued to claim lives into the early months of 1625, devotional interest consolidated around the cave relics. Local records document that in February 1625, a soapmaker named Vincenzo Bonelli reported an apparition on Monte Pellegrino, stating that the saint had instructed that her bones be carried through the urban core to bring an end to the contagion.

Cardinal Giannettino Doria reconvened his commission of medical practitioners and clerics to complete the formal canonical verification. Upon their favourable judgment, Doria issued the official diocesan decree affirming the authenticity of the skeletal remains. On 9 June 1625, the relics were placed inside a processional casket and carried through the streets of Palermo. Following this civic event, and alongside the ongoing enforcement of sanitary cordons, documented plague cases dropped steadily until the epidemic subsided entirely later that year.

Universal Cult and the Roman Martyrology of 1626

The swift decline of the epidemic transformed Rosalia into the primary patroness of the Sicilian capital, displacing the ancient four patron saints in municipal prominence. In 1626, Pope Urban VIII formally inscribed saint rosalia of palermo into the Roman Martyrology, thereby elevating her status from a localized mountain memory to a universally recognized saint of the Catholic Church.

Urban VIII fixed two distinct liturgical feasts in the Roman calendar: 15 July, commemorating the unearthing of the relics in the Monte Pellegrino cave, and 4 September, marking her traditional dies natalis (death). In 1627, the Jesuit scholar Giordano Cascini published the definitive hagiographical volume Vitae Sanctae Rosaliae in Palermo, cementing the narrative structure of her courtly origins, her hermit life, and the 1624 discovery alongside engravings that mirrored Van Dyck's established visual models.

The 1631 Silver Reliquary and the Liturgical Tradition

By 1631, the Senate of Palermo and the cathedral chapter had commissioned and completed an immense silver reliquary urn to house the hermit's remains permanently within the primatial cathedral. Crafted by skilled silversmiths, the urn featured intricate narrative reliefs depicting the discovery of the cave and the 1625 procession.

This reliquary remains the focal point of the annual Festino, celebrated every July along the central axis of the Cassaro (modern Via Vittorio Emanuele) towards the sea, featuring a triumphal allegorical carriage designed to commemorate the liberation of the city from the pestilence. In September, the devotional practice known as the acchianata sees pilgrims ascend the ancient footpath up Monte Pellegrino to the sanctuary built around the rock cave.

Hagiographical Disputes and Textual Evidence

Subsequent historical and medical scrutiny has outlined the boundary between seventeenth-century hagiographical embellishment and demonstrable twelfth-century facts. While Baroque accounts linked Rosalia's father Sinibaldo to direct Charlemagne lineage and claimed documented feudal rule over Quisquina, contemporary twelfth-century Norman diplomas offer no confirmation of this imperial genealogy.

Similarly, the debate over whether Rosalia adhered to an informal hermetic rule, a Basilian Greek-rite tradition, or a Latin Benedictine model reflects later attempts by regular orders to claim her legacy. Historical analysis demonstrates that her eremitic life belonged to the fluid anachoretic movements common in Norman Sicily, operating outside established monastic enclosures. Furthermore, nineteenth-century anatomical examinations of the relics sparked renewed discussions regarding the composition of the original cave findings, contrasting the canonical ecclesiastical declarations of 1625 with modern forensic physical anthropology.

Sources and further reading

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was Anthony van Dyck in Palermo during the 1624 plague?

Anthony van Dyck travelled to Palermo in the spring of 1624 on the invitation of Viceroy Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy to paint portraits. When a plague ship arrived from Tunis in May, maritime quarantines trapped the Flemish artist in the city.

What key iconographical attributes did Van Dyck give to Saint Rosalia?

Van Dyck established her canonical portrayal wearing an earthy hermit's robe with unbound hair, accompanied by a skull, a crown of roses, white lilies, and an open panoramic view of Palermo’s port, including the lazar house.

When were the relics of Saint Rosalia officially discovered?

The human skeletal remains were excavated from the limestone recesses of a cave on Monte Pellegrino on 15 July 1624, during the peak of the epidemic, after local devotional traditions pointed to the site.

How did the Roman Catholic Church formally recognize her cult?

Following Cardinal Giannettino Doria's diocesan authentication of the relics in 1625, Pope Urban VIII inscribed Saint Rosalia into the Roman Martyrology in 1626, assigning feast days on 15 July and 4 September.

Did Saint Rosalia belong to a formal religious order?

Historical evidence indicates she was an independent twelfth-century hermit without formal affiliation to the Benedictine or Basilian orders, although later seventeenth-century religious chronicles frequently attempted to claim her as part of their respective traditions.

What is the Festino di Santa Rosalia?

The Festino is Palermo's major civic and religious festival held every July since the seventeenth century. It commemorates the 1624 relic discovery and the subsequent cessation of the plague with a large allegorical triumphal cart.