Bivona – September 4
Patronal Feast of St. Rosalie
Since the 14th century there has existed, on the same site where it stands now, a small church dedicated to St. Rosalie. On the occasion of the plague of 1624, the people of Bivona, convinced that they had been preserved from contagion by the protection accorded them by the Saint, proclaimed her the Patron Saint of Bivona and rebuilt its church larger.
The main work of art of the church and the entire Bivonese community is the ferculum with the statue of Saint Rosalie. The Vara and the statue were commissioned in 1601 by the rectors of the Confraternity to the Bivonese sculptor Don Ruggero Valenti.
The Vara and the statue are a true masterpiece of seventeenth-century Sicilian wooden sculpture and a fine example of late Mannerist culture, admired by scholars in the field who have always extolled its aesthetic and decorative qualities, confirming that it is one of the oldest and most valuable fercoli in Sicily.
Even today, after more than 400 years, the Vara is carried in procession, strictly on the shoulders, for the feast of the Patron of Bivona, the most beautiful Rose of the Sicans.
