The patron saint of San Paolo Albanese is Saint Roch, celebrated on 16 August with an ancient and unique ritual: the statue of the saint, of the Montpellier school, is preceded by a votive little throne made of wheat sheaves adorned with ribbons and flowers, called the himunea, which symbolises the culture and technology linked to wheat farming on the day marking the end of its cycle. The chapel dedicated to him, in Piazza San Rocco, bears the construction date, 1614, carved in Roman numerals on the arch dividing the sanctuary from the nave.
The town was founded in the 16th century by Albanian settlers fleeing Ottoman rule, who still preserve today the Arbëresh language and the Byzantine religious rite of their ancestors: the mother church, dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and built in 1721, indeed celebrates the Byzantine liturgy despite having, like the chapel of San Rocco, naves and side altars foreign to the traditional Greek-cross plan.
