Rosalia was a young nobleman from the Sinibaldi family, who lived and was educated in the court of Ruggero II of Sicily in the twelfth century. The tradition says that she was proposed by a count as a reward for saving the king from an attack by a ferocious animal.

Rosalia just the day before the wedding had an apparition of Jesus and, deeply distraught, she decided to abandon court life to devote herself to a contemplative and solitary one. Thus, she decided not to get married with the count who had asked her hand and to take refuge in a monastery. To escape the constant requests to convince to the wedding, Rosalia moved to a cave outside the city, in one of her father's possessions and, subsequently, she moved to that one of Monte Pellegrino (Palermo mountain relief), which will host her until her death, in 1170.

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Santa Rosalia officially became patron of the city in the early 1600s when, the legend says, Palermo was freed from a terrible plague, after a procession along the streets of the city where its relics were exposed.

The Santuzza, as the devotees of Palermo call it, is celebrated in particular in the summertime, during the Festino *, on the 14th and 15th of July, and on September the 4th, in occasion of the "acchianata" to the Monte Pellegrino (verbatim "climb" ), strictly done on foot by the faithful up to the patron's sanctuary.

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The ceramic statue depicting Santa Rosalia, which is the background of this article, was donated to the city by the well-known ceramist Nino Parrucca and constitutes a part of the underwater nativity scene of the Port of Mondello. The statue of Santuzza, is located on the fence of the walk along the harbor of the township, surrounded by blue sea, by wooden boats and, of course, by the constant chatter of a lively and colourful village like the Mondello one. The statue is placed out of the water but it is possible to see under its feet, right among the waves of the sea , the other submerged statues, part of the composition donated by the artist in honour of the fishermen who animate with their activity the economy of the city and the hamlet.

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In Palermo, the connection with the sea and the ancient history that smoothes every corner of the street is something visible in every cultural and social element of the city and, thanks to this installation too, in the religious symbolism.