Every Italian town has its saint, and almost every saint has a feast: the procession, the brass band, the street lights, the fireworks at night. But which patron saints are the most common? We counted them: of Italy's 7904 municipalities, we know the patron of 7339, and we lined them up one by one. The result tells more than you might expect, because behind the numbers are the Lombards, plague epidemics, the sailors of Bari and even Santa Claus.
The ranking
1. St John the Baptist, 343 towns
Feast day: 24 June.
He is the patron of Turin, Genoa and Florence, and first place is no accident. In early churches baptisteries were dedicated to him, the saint of baptism, and in northern Italy his cult had a powerful patron: the Lombard queen Theodelinda, who dedicated the basilica of Monza to him. His feast falls close to the summer solstice, and many cities still celebrate it with fire: in Turin the farò bonfire is lit on the evening of the 23rd, in Florence the fochi fireworks light up the Arno on the 24th.
2. Our Lady of the Assumption, 301 towns
Feast day: 15 August.
Assumption Day is Ferragosto, and a great many Italian mother churches and cathedrals are dedicated to Mary assumed into heaven: so the village feast ends up falling on the same day as half of Italy's holidays. She is the most common patron in Piedmont, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige.
3. St Nicholas, 299 towns
Feast day: 6 December.
He was bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, but for Italians he is St Nicholas of Bari: in 1087 a group of sailors from Bari brought his relics to their city, and Bari has kept his tomb in its basilica ever since. Protector of sailors, children and girls without a dowry, in the Netherlands he became Sinterklaas, and from there Santa Claus. In Campania and Calabria he is the most common patron of all, with 54 and 52 towns.
4. St Michael the Archangel, 279 towns
Feast day: 29 September.
The archangel with the sword was the saint of the Lombards, a warrior people who made the sanctuary on the Gargano, at Monte Sant'Angelo, their holy place, visited by pilgrims from all over Europe. The sanctuary is now part of the UNESCO site of the Lombards in Italy, and the spread of his cult often follows the old Lombard lands. On 29 September 168 towns celebrate: the next time is two weeks away.
5. St Roch, 232 towns
Feast day: 16 August.
The 14th-century French pilgrim, with his staff, the sore on his leg and the dog bringing him bread, is the saint of the plague. His cult spread with the epidemics, village after village: people prayed to him when the contagion arrived and dedicated a chapel to him when it left. His relics reached Venice in 1485. He is the most common patron in Puglia and Basilicata, and his feast, the day after Ferragosto, stretches the August holidays by one more day.
6. St Lawrence, 226 towns
Feast day: 10 August.
A deacon of the Church of Rome, he was martyred in 258, on a gridiron according to tradition. His night is the night of shooting stars, the “tears of St Lawrence”, and his feast is one of the most popular of the summer. He is the patron of Grosseto, Tivoli and Alba, and in Liguria he comes second only to the Baptist.
7. St George, 225 towns
Feast day: 23 April.
The knight who slays the dragon is the patron of Reggio Calabria, Ferrara, Ragusa and Campobasso. A soldier and martyr, his cult came from the East with the Byzantines and grew with the Crusades, and seafaring cities were glad to adopt him: the red cross on white of Genoa's flag is his. In Sardinia he is among the three most common patrons.
8. St Martin, 219 towns
Feast day: 11 November.
A Roman soldier, he cut his cloak in two to cover a poor man and became bishop of Tours. His feast comes when the new wine is ready, as the Italian saying goes, “at San Martino every must becomes wine”, and when a few days of sun and warmth often return: St Martin's summer. He is the patron of Belluno and Martina Franca, and the most common in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia-Romagna.
9. Saints Peter and Paul, 179 towns
Feast day: 29 June.
They are the patrons of Rome, where 29 June is a city holiday, and the most common in Lombardy, with 75 towns. Together with the Baptist they make late June home to the two busiest days for patron feasts in Italy: 236 towns celebrate on 24 June, 231 on the 29th.
10. St Blaise, 144 towns
Feast day: 3 February.
Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, he protects the throat: on 3 February throats are blessed in church with two crossed candles. In Milan that day people eat the last slice of the Christmas panettone, kept aside on purpose. He is the patron of Cento, Comiso and Maratea, which dedicated to him the basilica on the mountain that bears his name.
The big cities go their own way
Many big cities have a patron of their own, rarely celebrated outside their region. St Ambrose, bishop of Milan, is patron of 46 towns, 30 of them in Lombardy. San Gennaro, the saint of Naples, is patron of 12 towns, 9 in Campania; St Rosalia, the Santuzza of Palermo, of 12, and 11 are in Sicily. Then there is the exception: Catania holds one of the most attended religious festivals in the world for St Agatha, yet of the 40 towns with her as patron only 3 are in Sicily, and 11 are in Lombardy.
A saint for every region
- Sicily: St Joseph, patron of 28 towns.
- Puglia and Basilicata: St Roch.
- Campania, Calabria, Abruzzo and Molise: St Nicholas.
- Lombardy: Saints Peter and Paul.
- Piedmont, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige: Our Lady of the Assumption.
- Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia-Romagna: St Martin.
- Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia: St John the Baptist.
- Umbria: St Michael the Archangel.
In Lazio first place is shared three ways, between the Baptist, St Roch and St Michael, with 20 towns each; in the Marche the Baptist and St Michael are level at 15 each.
The feast calendar
Among the 5492 towns for which we have a single fixed date, August is the busiest month: 1133 patron feasts, more than one in five. June follows with 738 and September with 591. The quietest months are March, with 146, which falls almost entirely in Lent, and October, with 153. The days with the most feasts are 24 June (236 towns), 29 June (231) and 15 August (227); right behind come 10 August, 6 December and 11 November.
How we counted
Each town's patron is the one you find in the quick facts of BigItalia's town pages, gathered town by town; for 565 towns the information is missing. We merged variants of the same saint (San Nicola, San Nicolò and San Nicola di Bari are one person), and a town with two patrons counts for both. The numbers are a snapshot: if your town's patron is wrong, write to us and we will fix it.
