The patron of Sant'Arcangelo is Saint Michael the Archangel, celebrated on 8 May. The present-day Sant'Arcangelo was founded by the Lombards of the Duchy of Benevento in the second half of the 7th century, and took its name precisely from the Archangel Michael, their patron.
In the municipal territory stands the monastic complex of Santa Maria d'Orsoleo, at the centre in 1305 of a dispute between the bishop of Anglona and the local feudal lord, who had tried to seize it; the abbey holds a Madonna of the Catalan or Aragonese school, datable to around 1190. Sant'Arcangelo's fief passed over the centuries among various families, from Nicolò Lamarra to Beatrice di Ponziaco in 1390, then to Carlo d'Artus and Pietro Barrile. The town's mother church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari.
