The patron saint of Mistretta is Saint Sebastian, venerated with two distinct feasts: 20 January, the liturgical date of his death, and 18 August, instituted to commemorate the town's liberation from the plague in the 17th century through the saint's intercession. The January feast is more subdued: the statue leaves the church dedicated to him and is carried through the streets on the fercolo (vara), at times at a run, on the shoulders of men in traditional dress with velvet trousers and a red kerchief.
It is in August that the celebration reaches its peak: the heavy wood-and-gold vara bearing the statue, carved by Noè Marullo between 1900 and 1906, is carried barefoot by about eighty devotees who inherit from their fathers the privilege of bearing it, preceded by the varetta carrying the saint's relics. The procession touches the town's most significant sites and ends at the Castello Saraceno, where the crowd awaits «l'Alba» (the dawn), which marks the end of the celebrations. The church of San Sebastiano, damaged by the 1967 earthquake, reopened for worship only in 1994.
