Saint Sophia Festival

An ancient devotion in the Iblei Mountains

The Saint Sophia Festival is the heart of Sortino's identity, a Baroque town perched 438 meters high in the Iblei Mountains, in the province of Syracuse and part of south-eastern Sicily. Saint Sophia has been the patron and protector of the city since 1534: the following year, on March 20, 1535, Pope Paul III issued a Papal Brief officially confirming her patronage. Since then, the people of Sortino have paid tribute to her every year, around September 10th, in one of the most deeply felt festivals in the entire Syracuse region.

The legend of Sophia the Byzantine

According to tradition, Sophia was born in the 2nd century AD to a family from Bisanti, a locality situated in the area of Pantalica — the great rock necropolis that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, located just a few kilometers from the town. For this origin, she is remembered as "Sophia the Byzantine." After converting to Christianity, she spread the Gospel among the local people until she suffered martyrdom by beheading, condemned by Martialis, the Roman prefect of Pantalica. Her figure thus intertwines faith and local roots, indissolubly linking the Saint to the cliffs of the Iblei.

The days of the festival: September 8th to 17th

The celebrations span about ten days. On the afternoon of September 8th, the solemn "Exposition" of the saint's statue takes place. At dawn on September 9th, the faithful make the traditional pilgrimage to the rock hermitage known as "a rrassu", in the Rosso district, a place believed to be where the martyr lived as a hermit.

The most anticipated moment is September 10th: the sciuta, the majestic exit of the Vare with the relics and the statue from the Church of Saint Sophia. The procession is welcomed in the square by thousands of firecrackers, the ringing of sacred bells, and the marches of the town's brass bands. This is followed by the presentation of children to the Saint, the evocative auction of gifts offered by the faithful, and the unmissable fireworks displays. On September 17th, a third procession crosses the more recent neighborhoods of the city, closing the cycle of festivities.

Between the sacred and the popular

Alongside the religious program, the evenings offer concerts, folk performances, entertainment in the square, and food stalls where you will find the extraordinary aromatic honey of the Iblei Mountains, a symbolic product of Sortino already celebrated in antiquity by Virgil, Ovid, and Theocritus. Amidst the Baroque backdrops of the Quattro Canti and the noble palaces of the Val di Noto, the festival becomes a unique opportunity to discover a village that also houses the Museum of the Opera dei Pupi and the House Museum of Traditional Beekeeping.