The patron saint of Petralia Sottana is Saint Calogerus, celebrated on 17 and 18 June at the end of the traditional week-long preparation known as the settina. The cult of the hermit saint is very ancient and deeply rooted: until the last century he was also carried in procession on Corpus Domini, and an old painting of him, by then deteriorated, was replaced by a statue by the sculptor Pintorno. On the evening of the 17th, after solemn vespers, a torchlight procession is held with a small effigy of the saint carried by children; on the afternoon of the 18th, the long solemn procession of the float winds instead through the town's steep streets — the float alone weighing 1,800 kilograms: on the steepest stretches the bearers form the "catina", a human chain to help climb or to brake on the way down, preceded by a standard with ribbons and bells, "u palu di san Calò".
Neither the confraternities nor the congregations take part in the procession, since they historically represent socio-economic distinctions, while that of Saint Calogerus is considered a feast of the people; until the 1940s not even the clergy took part, with the exception of the rector of the saint's altar. In the old quarter of San Giovanni, where once stood the church dedicated to the saint and to Saint John, that of San Rocco, that of the Holy Cross, and the Capuchin convent, the cattle fair in honour of the patron used to be held.
