Chapter 36: The Good Show of Santa Rosalia Memorial Day (Day)

The first Sunday in May 1496 was a very sunny day.
Early summer morning is cool and not boring. The wind from the sea is slightly salty, but it is also pleasant.
In Sicily, especially Palermo, Santa Rosalia is a well-known saint.
Many years ago, when the Black Death spread across Europe, Sicily was not spared. Although the scene at that time had been too long, maybe because the terrible scene at that time was too memorable. There will be the horror of death, and the lingering fear can be found in many documents passed down.
Santa Rosalia appeared at that time.
It is said that she was just the wife of a very ordinary businessman before the Sanctification. Every day, in addition to taking care of her family, she kept doing small crafts, so that a woman is destined to do nothing particularly striking in her life.
But when the plague came, all the priests and officials either refused to show up because of fear, or they were unavoidably killed by the plague, and even the people of Palermo were completely panicked and even began to renounce themselves, but Santa Rosalia suddenly Having received revelation from God and Christ, she bravely walked out of the house and walked onto a street full of dead people, and began to appease the people who were about to die with her revelatory hands.
The miracle is that when she bravely walked towards the plague, the death seemed to retreat because of fear. Whenever she went to a place, the plague would recede silently. When the news spread, the name of Santa Rosalia began in Palermo. , Messina, spread even further south of Sicily.
Countless patients dragged their dying bodies to Palermo, hoping to let this saint ’s life-saving hands touch, and more healthy people hope to get the magical healing power from her, and San Luo Salia never refused to all the supplicants. She even left her home to live in a remote monastery. Then she opened the door to all the helpers and opened her arms.
Eventually, the plague disappeared inexplicably, just as the rest of the people survived and happily survived for the protection of Santa Rosalia, the businessman's wife suddenly died.
This caused the Palermo people to fall into deep pain, and arouse their crazy worship of Santa Rosalia. The Palermo people believed that Santa Rosalia was the guardian angel sent by God to them, and she died. The day became the anniversary of the ascension of Santa Rosalia.
Looking at the records in the book, Alexander's mouth standing in front of the huge bookshelf in the Monreale Cathedral's bookcase hung a silk smile. Of course he knew Santa Rosalia, and even knew that it happened for her hundreds of years later. Several fierce debates, some of which are unacceptable.
At least Alexander scoffed at those who said that the female sage was not afraid of danger to approach the dead. The real reason was that she had some special obsession with corpses.
However, there are various speculations about the fact that Santa Rosalia survived the frequent contact with the dead during the Great Plague. Of course, there are some things with mysticism, and more are still quite credible scientific inferences. .
One of the most authoritative one is that Santa Rosalia is a rare pathogen adaptor, which not only saves her from infection, but also allows her to spread some antibody factors from her to contact with her through certain methods. Person, which also explains why she sometimes only needs to touch the patient to save a miracle of life.
As for why she died after the plague disappeared, there are some more scientific explanations. That is because of the special physiological function, Santa Rosalia not only adapted to the plague, but even became dependent on the plague to some extent. A special phenomenon, when the plague disappeared, her body could no longer adapt to a healthy environment, which eventually led to a lack of antibodies and a failure of her functions.
Of course, these kinds of inferences are just speculations. Although there is always a skeleton of Santa Rosalia known as a holy object in Palermo, this bone has been proved not to be Santa Rosalia.
Alexander was not interested in the mysterious power of Santa Rosalia. He was interested in the monastery where the female saint of Palermo had stayed before her life.
Coincidentally, it was the monastery where Alexander saw Clean hiding Malecho.
When I heard that the Bishops ’Conference was going to be held in Palermo Cathedral that day, Alexander felt a strange feeling in his heart. He felt as if something about to happen was familiar, but he could n’t remember what was going on, but he was sure After all these things are connected together, the ultimate goal should be this bishop meeting.
The Sicilian Provincial Episcopal Conference will appoint not only the Bishop of Palermo, but also the more prestigious and important Archbishop of the Province, which is the key.
At this time, the meeting place of the Bishops' Conference had changed, and the reason for this change was the disappearance of Malecho and the killing of Peron.
Think about these Alexanders feeling a little tight in their throats. Once these seemingly unrelated things are connected one by one, you will find that the purpose of all this is in front of you.
Even, it may seem that Alfonso ’s appointment as the treasurer of the library is not so simple. After all, although the library of the Monreale Cathedral is nominally privately owned, after so many years of accumulation and precipitation, what it contains How could your treasure of knowledge not be valued by the church, but such an important place is left to be looked after by an inexplicable Greek? Alexander shook his head secretly, priest, sometimes a little too clever.
Obviously, if someone in the church is responsible for the library, some people ’s actions may not be able to discover their clues, and if the priest ’s own person is in charge, they may be affected by the exposing afterwards, and then discover and Priest relationship.
But if it is an outsider who has no known origin at all, if something happens in the future and is checked into the library, it will eventually just be a hit.
Even Alexander suspected that by that time, he might not even have a chance to tell.
"Priest ..." Alexander turned to the last page of the document and looked at the sentence in it slightly pondered, which said "Explore the statement and the secret of death, all you need is courage."
Put the old and ancient documents carefully back to the original place. Although these documents are not known to be the first generation of writings, their precious value is still inestimable. At least when Alexander heard about the memorial in Santa Rosalia After a meeting of the Bishops' Conference on the Japanese, when I came to the library to search for documents about Santa Rosalia, I stumbled upon the relationship between the saint and the monastery.
"Everything seems to be like this."
Looking at the clear sky outside, Alexander walked out of the library. The third morning prayer was just over. The team of bishops was walking through the courtyard along the corridor on the side of the cathedral. Today is Saint Rosalia ’s Day and the bishop. On the day when the regiment convenes, all bishops must participate in the procession of the holy bone until the sun sets.
Alexander walked out of the church through the side door. While he was still in the door, he had heard the waves outside. When he walked out of the church, he saw from the square in front of the church, along the mountain road of Caputo Hill to Monre down the mountain. The crowd of Alai.
It seems that the entire city of Palermo has gathered in front of the Monreale Cathedral this morning. The colorful costumes have become an important tool for people to fight this day. Men ’s short sleeves and leggings, women ’s Fancy feathers and pleated skirts, soft leather boots embroidered with various patterns, and roll-toed shoes lined with velvet cloth make different sounds on the ground, as well as those unusually large and exaggerated various shawls and chest-lined silk shirts, often Because the astonishingly large size has repeatedly attracted a variety of envious or jealous eyes.
This day is the Santa Rosalia Memorial Day and one of the most important festivals in Palermo.
Alexander was stopped as soon as he walked out of the church, but the young men who stopped him were not malicious. The men hung a piece of cloth drawn in white bones on Alexander. The white bones represented the horrible black death and death of that year. , And the woman brandished Alexander ’s head with a long black scarf. It is said that this custom originated in Santa Rosalia ’s use of a black scarf to cover the face of the dead.
However, some of the bold women will cover their heads while covering the men, so that they can kiss the handsome men casually, although most of the women doing this are not serious, but some are In these days, the good girl who became bold because of the emotional infection around her will suddenly do such a crazy thing.
Alexander suffered more than one such attack. His angular, sculptural face caused him a lot of trouble. It seemed that Palermo's women became crazy for a time, until he had to use A hat prepared in advance covered his face before he entered the crowd and walked down the mountain.
Although it is not very far from the Monreale Cathedral to the city of Palermo, in an era when there is no even a normal stone road, it seems not so good to go.
Riding a donkey on a long, dirt road, Alexander couldn't help but think of those books about Italy in the Roman era.
Although all the passages leading to Rome are exaggerated, it can at least explain the prosperity and civilization of the ancient Roman era, but this civilization disappeared with the invasion of the Goths and the demise of Western Rome. Then, after thousands of years, it was once retained for Western civilization. East Rome, which cherished precious seeds, also declined with the rise of the new moon.
"History is really a weird thing," Alexander said with a touch of emotion, but when he saw the towering tower of Palermo South City from a distance, he exhaled gently and threw those disease-free groaning emotions behind his head. "It has nothing to do with me, at least not now."
Although I have seen the Palermo people ’s passion for Santa Rosalia ’s Day in Monreale, after entering the city, Alexander really realized that he still underestimated the city ’s residents to the saint. The reverence of, or simply, the Palermo people ’s enthusiasm for joining together.
Every street, every square, even every alley seems to be packed, and those rich people who ride the tall horses that are usually enviable become the object of people's ridicule, because they can only be silly Riding a horse on the street a little bit forward, it looks like a clown juggler.
As for the real jugglers who turned this moment into a festival of complete carnival ~ EbookFREE.me ~ they scrambled to attract the audience, and more often sprayed fireballs one after another along the street The sky, or a wooden pole to pick up the skeleton representing the plague, and then in the sigh of surprise people do not use any rope to direct the puppets to dance.
The entire Palermo was immersed in the heat of celebration and carnival, until noon, with the dull bells sounded from the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral, people on the street began to become eager and contagious after the noise The strong atmosphere of anticipation gradually spread in all corners of the city.
The bell rang again, and the bronze gate of the cathedral was slowly opened, accompanied by solemn and solemn singing, and the foreman was opened by forty-four priests and a team of Aragonese guards, the golden coffin of the holy remains of Santa Rosalia With the support of eleven Sicilian bishops, he left the cathedral and began a city parade.
Alexander stood in the crowd and watched the passing team. Alfonso walked at the end of all the bishops and the front of all the priests.
This position is very suitable for him, but this position is very embarrassing.
Is not the bishop of the bishop, not the priest of the priest.
So what exactly is he?
However, the priest seemed unusually calm and calm. His pace was slow but not procrastinating. The crown of Bishop Palermo was placed on the fleece tray held by his hands. In the midday sun, Alfonso seemed to be shrouded in a layer There is no light.
This scene caused people to sigh. Many people began to bow to Alfonso. The ones who were close to him also held up the corner of his robe and kissed, while Alfonso always looked calm.
Alexander did not continue to watch, and walked towards the Mararo market.
He knew that the real good show today is not a parade on the street, but in another place.