St. Rose is the patron saint of Viterbo. She was born in 1233. Various miracles are attributed to her. Legend has it that the crumbs that fell from pieces of bread she gave to the poor turned into roses. When Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor, besieged the city of Viterbo in 1243, during the wars against the papacy, the 10 year old Rose was to be seen exhorting the citizens to hold out against the enemy and attending to the wounded. Vatican documents tell of a young girl who, while carrying a stone on her head to the defenders on the city walls, had her arm pierced by an arrow, and without removing the stone, “extracted the arrow with her teeth from the wound and delivered the stone to the nearest combatants.”An examination of her body has revealed a wound to the arm which could have in fact been caused by an arrow.She died at the age of 17 on 6th March 1251.
Every year ,on September the 3rd in Viterbo takes place the transportation of La macchina di Santa Rosa (the Machine of St. Rose” ) a massive 28 metre high tower, illuminated with 3,000 tiny electric lights and 880 candles, and topped off with a statue of her, which is carried for 1,200 metres through the darkened streets of the old medieval town on the backs of around 100 volunteers called “facchini.” The tradition goes all the way back to September 4, 1258, when the body of the saint was exhumed and transported to the Monastery of Saint Damian; but it was not until 1664, following seven years of plague in the city, that a “machine” first appeared. In gratitude for having survived such a terrible pestilence the citizens voted to renew the veneration of their saint every year.