April 4 marks the celebration to one of the most beloved saints: San Benito of Palermo, with whom a community has established a connection of love and devotion.

In San Benito, Petén they celebrate to the local saint, San Benito de Palermo, with religious activities that become an occasion for kids' joy and artistic expressions.

Benito was the son of some slaves of African origin that in the XVI Century lived in the City of Palermo, in Sicily. According to its biography his master granted his freedom and so he became a shepherd. When he was twenty years old he came in contact with the community of the Order of Minor Friars, known as Franciscans, for his founder, Francisco de Asis.

From this experience, Benito decided to enter the order, in the convent of Santa María de Palermo, but since he was analphabet they assigned him chores in the kitchen of the community. The Franciscan charisma absorbed the free young's impulses and he imitated the example of charity of Francisco de Asís. He managed to overcome its little instruction and he became elected Principal of the Convent in 1578. They say that he accomplished a strict poverty and austerity among the friars. Following the steps of its founder, Benito won the admiration of its contemporaries and the future generations, which elevated him to the altars.

The devotion of San Benito of Palermo is very diffused in Latin America, especially in communities, which counted with numerous slaves, like Venezuela and Nicaragua, and including the south, like Uruguay and Argentina; in fact, in the capital of this last nation there is a quarter that goes after the name of the saint.

It is well known that during the Hispanic period, in the Kingdom of Guatemala there was a strong devotion towards him and his devotees were commonly of African origin. According to the historian Christopher Lutz, a great percentage of the population in the City of Santiago of Guatemala had African ancestors and were mulattos, which would have been a strong incentive to venerate a saint, that like them, share the discrimination of being of slave origin.

However, its veneration was not only in the capital city, there were other several places in the rural areas of the Republic where still today they celebrate his day, such is San Benito, Petén. Jose María Pinelo, who is the organizer of the activities celebrated in the Parrish of San Benito comments that the festivities to the saint start with the ceremony of "la bajada", which consists on the ceremony where a couple of spouses takes the image of the saint out of its niche and put it back on March 25. The next day they start the novenary, a period of nine days of prayer, and in which they realize festivities at dawn, with the contribution of the marimba in front of the temple, and with the presence of La Chatona and Caballito de Tata Vicente (two local characters). During the afternoons there are pi–atas and clowns for the children, and at nights they have cultural activities realized by representatives from the national and private schools and educational institutes. Besides, they also elect Miss Flor del Barrio. At last, on April three the image of San Benito of Palermo is taken on a procession at 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, and then returning to the temple around 6:30 p.m., where they celebrate a mass, and in this way culminate the activities in memory of this beloved Sicilian saint.