The patron saint of Nola is Saint Paulinus, bishop of the town in the 5th century, born in Bordeaux in 355 and died in Nola on 22 June 431; he is considered by the Church the patron of bell-ringers «ad orbis», since tradition attributes to him the invention of bells as liturgical objects. The town's co-patron is Saint Felix, celebrated on 15 November.
With the Festa dei Gigli, a Catholic folk feast held every year on the Sunday after 22 June, the people of Nola commemorate Paulinus's return to the town from captivity at the hands of barbarians in the first half of the 5th century. In 2013 the event was included by UNESCO in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, together with the Macchina di Santa Rosa of Viterbo, the Varia of Palmi and the Discesa dei Candelieri of Sassari, joined together in the Network of Great Italian Shoulder-Borne Machines. Nola is also known as the «Brunian city», for being the birthplace of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, commemorated every year with the Certame Bruniano promoted by the town administration.
