The patrons of Santa Croce Camerina are Saint Joseph, the town's greatest religious and folk event, celebrated in mid-March, and Saint Rosalia, celebrated in mid-September; tradition has it that families devoted to the patron prepare the Cene di San Giuseppe, banquets with first fruits, sweets and local dishes offered as a vow of faith. Both are venerated in the mother church, built in the early 17th century on a medieval layout and completely rebuilt from 1797 to a design by the Palermo architect Teodoro Gigante, commissioned by marquis Tommaso Celestri: it has a Latin-cross plan, three naves and measures 45 metres from the main door to the apse.
Inside, the church holds a 19th-century cypress-wood statue of Saint Joseph, patron of the town since 13 March 1994, and, at the middle of the left nave, the statue of the age-old patroness Saint Rosalia Sinibaldi, a work from the first half of the 18th century. It also holds a copy of the Madonna di Loreto attributed to the northern painter Martin Faber and a 1604 funerary monument commissioned by marquis Giovanni Battista II Celestri.
