Sainte Devote is the patron of Monaco but also from Corsica and more generally of the Mediterranean Sea. Arrested, jailed and judged because she was Christian, she was stoned by the Romans. Her body was saved by sympathisers and put into a small boat bound for the African coast. However, the craft head for the North and a dove guided the skiff to the "Vallon des Gaumattes" where a chapel dedicated to the Martyrdom has been built. The Patron Saint protected the Principality many times against the assailants and illness. A boat is burned every year the evening before the 27th of January, feast and public holiday, to evoke the bonfire and the theft attempt of her relics, preserved in Monaco.

Tags: Monaco