The patron saint of Misilmeri is Saint Justus, whose relics are kept in a neoclassical silver urn made in 1784 by the Palermo silversmith Ignazio Richichi. Dedicated to the saint is the «Dimostranza di San Giusto», a procession of about a hundred costumed figures re-enacting the key moments of his life, written by Don Domenico Furitano of the barons of Marraffa: in 1771, for the centenary of the translation of his relics to the town, great celebrations were held with an impressive figurative procession.
The town owes its name to the castle built by Emir Jafar II, who ruled Sicily from 998 to 1019: around the stronghold, from whose towers a vast panorama stretched as far as the Tyrrhenian Sea, a village formed called in Arabic Menzel-el-Emir, "village of the Emir". Present-day Misilmeri was founded in 1540 by Baron Francesco Del Bosco, who in 1553 had the new parish church of San Giovanni Battista, the Madrice, built there, and in 1575 opened the road leading up to the castle.
