The feast of Saint Agatha is the most important religious feast in the city of Catania, and the third most important religious feast in the world. It is celebrated in honour of the city's patron saint, and is one of the most popular Catholic religious festivals, precisely because of the number of people it involves and attracts from all over the world. It takes place every year from 3 to 5 February, on 12 February and on 17 August. The February anniversary is linked to the martyrdom of the Catanese saint, while the August date commemorates the return to Catania of his remains, after they had been stolen and taken to Constantinople where they remained for 86 years.
The cult for St Agatha was so great, that until the 16th century, she was also disputed as belonging to Palermo, the question was long debated, until in Palermo the cult for the saint was supplanted by that for St Rosalie. She was also much venerated in Rome, Pope Symmachus (498-514) erected a basilica in her honour on the Via Aurelia and another was dedicated to her by St Gregory the Great in 593.
Compared to Seville's Semana Santa or Cuzco's Corpus Christi in Peru, the feast of Saint Agatha is considered the third most important festival in the world. The streets of Catania's city centre and its devout citizens are preparing to host the patron saint: between one Candlemas annacata and another, the first stalls full of typical Agatha goodies such as Cassatelle, or more vulgarly known as the 'minnuzze di Sant'Agata', begin to appear. Depicting the breasts of the Saint torn off with pincers to force her to abandon her faith, the Minnuzze di Sant'Agata are composed of a sponge-cake shell filled with sheep's ricotta cheese. The latter is previously processed with sugar and enriched with candied fruit and dark chocolate. A sweet white icing covers the cassatella, which is then decorated on top with a candied cherry, as a nipple decoration.
Other typical sweets of the Agatha festivities are the 'Olivette di Sant'Agata', soft almond paste green and olive-shaped nougat made with caramelised dried fruit and the soft nougat with pistachios and almonds wrapped in a soft mixture of honey, egg white and sugar and then covered with thin sheets of wafer.
