The patron saint of Alì is Saint Agatha, celebrated on 5 February in the cathedral dedicated to her, built in 1565 together with the nearby Capuchin convent, erected in 1574. The main facade features a fine portal of local stone and the interior preserves a panel of the Madonna of the Rosary from the Messina school (16th century), adorned with a silver mantle, and a wooden crucifix.
Before the construction of the current cathedral, the town's first mother church was the church of the Immaculate: destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries, after the new cathedral was erected it was renamed Sant'Agata la Vetere. For centuries Alì maintained privileged relations with Messina, which granted its residents the enjoyment of many of its own civic privileges, reinforced by family ties between the wealthiest families of both towns.
