The patroness of Pedara is Mary Most Holy Annunciate, whose cult is deeply felt by the townspeople: on 15 June 1388 they obtained from the bishop of Catania Simone del Pozzo permission to build the first parish church dedicated to her. The feast days are 25 March and the second Sunday of September. The sanctuary dedicated to her, standing on a hill north of the town, was raised to archdiocesan Marian sanctuary in 1971 and is the heart of Pedara's greatest religious devotion.
On 11 January 1693 the extremely violent earthquake that struck eastern Sicily destroyed many towns, halting their development. Don Diego Pappalardo, a priest from Pedara and conventual chaplain of the Order of Malta, rebuilt the mother church of Santa Caterina, today a pontifical basilica, twice in under twenty years. Pedara lies on the slopes of Etna, and its main street, corso Ara di Giove, recalls an ancient altar consecrated to Jupiter Aetnaeus that once stood on the volcano.
