The patrons of Genzano di Lucania are Saint Anthony the Abbot, celebrated on 17 January, and the Madonna delle Grazie, celebrated on the second Sunday of August. Tradition holds that on a night between 16 and 17 January in the 6th century an unusual snowfall covered the besieging camps in a thick blanket of snow within a few hours, rendering the war machines useless: the bad weather lasted about a month, until the enemy, weary of the long wait, lifted the siege and marched toward Oppido. Genzano saw in that providential snowfall a miracle of Saint Anthony the Abbot, whose feast day fell precisely on the day set for the town's destruction, and elected the saint as its special protector. To this day, on the evening of 16 January, after evening Mass at the sanctuary of Maria Santissima delle Grazie, a bonfire is lit in the square and blessed; on the morning of the 17th, after the solemn Mass, the saint's statue is carried in procession through the streets of the town.
The Madonna delle Grazie, meanwhile, has a festive cycle that begins on 2 July, the day of her liturgical feast, with a procession to the chapel of Capo d'Acqua; the actual patronal feast, on the second Sunday of August, includes a celebration at the mother church of Santa Maria della Platea and a procession of the statue to the sanctuary of the Grazie. The municipal territory also holds the castle of Monteserico, documented from 1041, the year of a famous battle between Byzantines and Normans, later becoming a domus under the Swabians and a royal masseria under the Angevins.
