Santa Rosa was born in Viterbo and spent her life praying
and helping her fellow citizens have faith in the lord. During this time Viterbo was in revolt
against the Pope so they disapproved of what she was doing and exiled her and
her family. When the Pope
won against Viterbo Santa Rosa came back and performed many miracles such as
submitting to a fire test for three hours, without burning; she cured many
diseased people, for example, a little girl called Delicata who was blind from
birth. One year later she died
from tuberculosis. Santa Rosa was
declared Saint eighteen months after her death. The Pope decided seven years later to move her body into the
church where she wanted to be.
When they retrieved the body they noticed that it was found pink and
uncorrupted, as if it had just died.
On September 4,1258 the Pope ordered her body to be carried by four
cardinals along the streets of Viterbo, to the little church of Santa Maria Della
Domianite of Assisi. Now every
year the town holds a festival where 100 Facchini pick up a massive 28m high Macchina
that is illuminated with 3,000 lights and 800 candles, and is toped with a
statue of Santa Rosa. The 5-ton Macchina is carried from Porta Romana to the
church (1,200m).
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| The body of Santa Rosa |
The Parade of Santa Rosa
(Everyone was dressed in old attire)
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| The men who carry the Macchina (Faccini) |
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| The Facchini (100) |
My apartment looks right over Porta Romana, which is where
the beginning of the festival took place. We invited students from USAC over to have dinner and
watch the festival from our balcony.
Our instructors warned us not to have too many people on the balcony at
once because it could collapse, thankfully it didn’t.
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| My Roommate is on the far right (Stacy) |
I am really sad because I have a lot of cool videos of the Facchini lifting up the Macchina and carrying it away but I can't seem to figure out how to upload them. Here are some pictures so you can get the general idea.
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| The view from my balcony and the start of the Transportation. |
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| The Macchina making its way to the church |
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| Every ally in Viterbo was filled with people |
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| Fiore di ceilo ( Flower in the sky) |
After the Macchina past our house I went with my roommate
Sara and her friend Stella and we followed the Macchina to the end. When the Macchina was close to
the end it exploded with flower pedals and Stella told me that if you caught
one in the air then it was good luck.
I tried but my height was against me and some tall man grabbed one that
was falling right towards me.
At midnight there were fireworks and they were the best I
have ever seen. There were times
that I ducked because I thought that they were coming right at me and every
time I thought that it was the finally they just kept going.
Santa Rosa was a life changing experience. It was very interesting to learn about
Viterbo’s history and to see the locals celebrate such a wonderful event.
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