The patron saint of Gioiosa Marea is Saint Nicholas of Bari, celebrated on 6 December. The moving of the patron saint's statue was the most important event for the whole Gioiosa community and took place in the Easter Octave of 1797: the church dedicated to him has a stone portal topped by a curved pediment, with a niche holding the saint's statue, and preserves altars in Baroque-style variegated marble, the 18th-century wooden statue of Saint Nicholas, an organ from 1725 and paintings by Olivio Sozzi.
The town's name is tied to Gioiosa Guardia, the ancient centre that stood on Monte Meliuso and was abandoned following the 1783 earthquake and the following year's famine: the evacuated inhabitants founded a new centre on the coast, renaming it Gioiosa Marea to distinguish it from the old one. The earthquake struck Guardia in the evening, at 7pm on 5 February 1783, damaging every house; it was the fourth quake in half a century, a century after the 1693 one that mainly affected the Val di Noto.
