The patron saint of Melilli is Saint Sebastian, celebrated on 4 May. According to legend, the statue's arrival in Melilli dates from 1 May 1414, when it reached Marina di Melilli aboard a boat coming from Rome; among the various cities of the province, including Syracuse, that vied for the statue, it miraculously became too heavy for anyone who tried to lift it, except for the people of Melilli. From then on the statue's presence brought about a series of events considered miraculous, and the devotion, still alive today, culminates on the night between 3 and 4 May with the arrival of the so-called «nuri» (naked ones), pilgrims dressed in white with a red sash and bare feet, who walk long and exhausting routes along the Via di San Sebastiano to obtain graces through the saint's intercession.
The basilica of San Sebastiano Martire, on the square of the same name, the town's largest, has a majestic façade in giuggiolona stone, whose second tier was designed in 1762 by the Syracusan architect Nicolò Sapia and built by the Sicilian master masons Luciano Alì and Carmelo Modanò; the façade's three portals, plus a side one, are in bronze. The statue of the saint, carved in wood with great attention to physiognomic proportions and expressions of pain, depicts Saint Sebastian pierced by silver arrows and bound to an elegant column, also silver. The mother church of San Nicola, once the urban and religious heart of the town, today plays a secondary role after the basilica's construction; it has a Latin-cross plan with three naves and holds paintings by Olivio Sozzi.
