The patron saints of Santa Lucia del Mela are Saint Lucy, celebrated on 13 December, and Saint Blaise, on 3 February. The co-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta holds a 15th-century marble statue of the saint, attributed to Francesco Laurana, alongside a painting of Saint Blaise by Pietro Novelli from 1645. The co-cathedral stands on the temple built in 1094 by Great Count Roger I, who thus fulfilled a vow made after his victory over the Arabs, dedicating it to the martyr he was devoted to; the building was later rebuilt with three naves between 1590 and 1642.
The town, which grew up at the foot of the castle built after the Arab invasion, was also the seat of an important territorial prelature and, until 1492, was home to a large Jewish community, the Giudecca, in what is now the Candelora district.
