The saint of Assisi known worldwide is Francis, patron of Italy since 1939, but the city's own patron is another: Saint Rufinus, celebrated on 12 August, to whom the cathedral is dedicated.
At the end of the same month, on the last Sunday of August, the Palio di San Rufino is run: a crossbow contest between the three terzieri into which the city was divided — Dive Mariae, San Rufino and San Francesco — with processions, flag-throwers and drummers of the Compagnia Balestrieri. The winner takes the palio, a cloth painted each year by a well-known artist.
