The patroness of Savoca is Saint Lucy, whose liturgical feast falls on 13 December; because of the cold, damp December weather, however, the actual patronal celebration is held on the second Sunday of August. The 13th-century church of San Nicolò holds a silver statue of the saint and a wooden statue carved by the sculptor Reginaldo D'Agostino; it was right outside this church that Francis Ford Coppola filmed some famous scenes of The Godfather in 1970.
Until the 19th century, 16 August also saw the feast of Saint Roch, remembered by tradition as the most sumptuous of Savoca's celebrations after that of the patroness; another traditional feast, that of Saint John the Baptist on 23 and 24 June, animated instead the quarter around the church of San Michele, built around 1250 as the chapel of the castle of Pentefur, the ruined fortress that dominates the town from the hill above.
