Duke Giulio Tomasi statue

The statue of Duke Giulio Tomasi

Giulio Tomasi was, together with his twin brother Carlo, the founder of Palma di Montechiaro. This man represented a pillar for Palma, for the Tomasis and above all for its inhabitants, who loved him so much that they called him “ il Duca Santo” (Holy Duke). Giulio had great values and his life focused on honor, religion and loyalty. He was a good and kind man, he was always seen around the village, on horseback, personally inspecting the suburbs to assess the hardships of the poorest citizens.

Among the various actions taken to help his citizens, Giulio founded the pawnshop, a micro credit for the unemployed to prevent usurers from taking over; he promoted the town's economy by building the tuna fishery near the San Carlo Tower, the “magazzeni” at sea with a small port to store and ship the grain produced in abundance.

From here ships and boats left to reach the various Italian ports, but also Malta and even Holland; he endowed the town with a grain column for the neediest and a hospital for the sick. He particularly cared about the good education of his citizens, but while having absolute power of life and death over anyone in the duchy, he never used violence to punish. In fact, in addition to forbidding gambling, he had a college established for the courtesans of the duchy, the current Collegio di Maria, in order to bring them back on track. His concern in trying to help everyone, from the poorest and neediest, made him a loved and respected duke, from Palma to Licata there was no citizen who could speak ill of his work.

He loved Palma more than himself, but if there was one thing he loved even more, it was God: His devotion to God led him to undertake long fasts and flagellations; he could be seen walking through the streets of the town with stones inside his shoes. And this great spirituality of his influenced the entire duchy and Palma, in a few years, was transformed into a second Jerusalem: he built a cave similar to that of Bethlehem dug at the foot of the cliff where his palace stood, the one we all know today as " U Ritu"; he had a church dedicated to the Virgin of Light built to the west of the town, on a hill that reminded him of Golgotha, which, unlike the other churches, had the entrance facing east, as a metaphor for the resurrection (like the sun that " dies" in the west but rises in the east), the Calvary.

Increasingly populous, Palma needed churches such as that of Sant'Angelo, also called Batiella, which soon became an orphanage to welcome all the most unfortunate children, then follow the church of Maria Santissima degli Angeli, or the Purgatory, built alongside the Hospitale, the church of Santa Rosalia in the name of his wife, the current church at the foot of the staircase of the Chiesa Madre. But what made Palma truly famous at that time was the Via Crucis which in 1657 the duke, thanks to his twin brother Carlo, had established on Mount Calvario.

This spiritual itinerary led pilgrims along a path that began at the Benedictine Monastery and ended on Mount Calvario; The” Way of the Cross” dispensed "plenary indulgence" to those who participated in it, that is, it freed them of all the sins committed. On May 3 each year more than five thousand pilgrims came to Palma to participate. The mystical air of the Holy Duke transformed the whole town into a brotherhood.

Palma thus became a second Jerusalem or, as foreigners called it, a second Holy Land. Thus Duca Santo’s Palma continued to grow, the streets filled up every day with new inhabitants from Ragusa, Agrigento, Licata, Naro, Caltanissetta. In just 15 years from its foundation, Palma recorded a significant demographic increase and 15 years later the inhabitants doubled and the tolling of 10 churches flooded the town.