The patrons of Caorle are Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Stephen the protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December. The 11th-century cathedral is dedicated to him, and the reason for the patronage lies in a relic: the saint's skull, whose reliquary is now in the parish museum together with six 14th-century panels of apostles, a 14th-century processional cross and the reliquary of the most precious blood.
But the devotion the people of Caorle hand down is the one for the Madonna dell'Angelo. Tradition tells that the image of the Virgin arrived by sea on a floating marble basin — it is kept in the sanctuary — and that the fishermen who found it could not lift it: children managed to, and carried it to the nearby church of San Michele Arcangelo, whence the title Madonna of the Angel. The scene decorates part of the vault of today's sanctuary. The town's vow to the Virgin was discharged with an annual feast fixed by Bishop Suarez on 4 February 1742, later moved by Patriarch Giuseppe Luigi Trevisanato to the second Sunday of July.
