The patron of Vasto is Saint Michael the Archangel, celebrated on 29 September. He had protected the town since the seventeenth century, but became its official patron in 1837: that year prayers to the saint were tied to the sparing of the town from the typhus and malarial fevers coming up from the coast.
The liturgical calendar sets the masses in the sanctuary beyond the public gardens and the procession through the old centre; in recent years the civic side has widened to concerts and shows.
The other date the people of Vasto never miss is Good Friday, with the feast of the Holy Thorn: the procession leaves the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the relic is kept, and the participants walk the streets of the centre barefoot.
