The patron saint of Ceriale is Saint Roch, celebrated on 16 August, with an oratory dedicated to him in the main village.
The parish church of Saints John the Baptist and Eugene, in the historic centre, holds a fine 15th-century crucifix known as the «Christ of the Turks» and numerous altarpieces datable between the 16th and 17th centuries: the crucifix's name recalls the night between 1 and 2 July 1637, when pirates commanded by the Algerian Ciribì attacked and set the town of Ceriale ablaze, devastating the original church, killing about thirty inhabitants and kidnapping about three hundred bound for Algeria; it was the «redemption confraternities» that took charge, on behalf of the families, of ransoming the enslaved people of Ceriale. During Genoese rule, between 1563 and 1564, the Torrione had already been built in the harbour area, a circular bastion intended as a lookout post and first line of defence, which nonetheless proved powerless against the pirate assault.
According to tradition, Ceriale's place name derives from a Roman centurion named Pompilius Cerialis who, in the time of Emperor Vespasian, is said to have founded at the locality of Carendetta a logistics centre for supplying the Roman legions stationed in Gaul.
