The patroness of Zafferana Etnea is Mary Most Holy of Providence, celebrated on the second Sunday of August. The devotion arose from an extraordinary event: following Etna's eruption that began in March 1792, on 1 June the lava flow threatened the town, and the people, crying miracle after the Madonna's intercession, vowed to make a pilgrimage to that spot every year. On the site, in 1861, a monumental little altar was built, and even today the townspeople fulfil their forefathers' vow by going there during the patronal celebrations.
Zafferana Etnea, which faces the eastern slope of the volcano, lived through another threatening eruption between 1991 and 1993: the town preserves the memory of these events in a bronze panel on the portal of the mother church depicting the 1792 eruption and the procession of the Madonna della Provvidenza.
