Festa patronale di Sant’Eustachio

According to an ancient tradition, every year on 20 September the people and civic authorities of Matera honour Saint Eustace, who is believed to have saved the city from a Saracen attack in 996 together with his sons, Agapitus and Theopistus.

The citizens later chose them as patron saints and established an annual celebration featuring a procession of the saint’s relics. The date was also associated with Matera’s most important historic fair, founded in 1381 by Queen Joanna I of Anjou.

To revive this tradition, which has shaped the identity of the City of the Sassi for centuries, on 20 May the historic statue of Saint Eustace, created in 1800 at the request of the people of Matera, will be carried in procession from the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi to Matera Cathedral.