Sicilian Vespers

American  

noun

1. a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.

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Sicilian Vespers British  

noun

1. (functioning as singular) a revolt in 1282 against French rule in Sicily, in which the ringing of the vesper bells on Easter Monday served as the signal to massacre and drive out the French

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Example Sentences

The online service debuted on Tuesday with Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi opera' "The Sicilian Vespers", conducted by director Fabio Lusi.

From Reuters • Feb. 17, 2023

On her first opening night at La Scala, last December, 30-year-old Soprano Callas made a smashing hit in Verdi's Sicilian Vespers.

From Time Magazine Archive

At the age of 28, she opened the Scala season in Sicilian Vespers.

From Time Magazine Archive

And he it was who provoked by his cruelties that frightful outbreak known as the "Sicilian Vespers," in 1283.

From A Short History of France by Parmele, Mary Platt

Events are described as taking place in the time of Philip II., under the title of Le Mariage de Vengeance, which happened three hundred years before, at the time of the Sicilian Vespers, 1283.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 by Various