St. Agatha is the patron saint of Catania. She was born in Catania in the 3rd century and belonged to a rich and important family. Agatha was a Christian in a time when Rome controlled Sicily and Christians were being persecuted. When Agatha refused to marry 
a Roman Prefect because he was not Christian, the prefect had her tortured in an attempt to force her to marry him. In the end she would not give in and was eventually martyred in 251 AD. As a saint she is credited with specific occurrences of saving the city from Mt. Etna as well as saving Malta from Turkish invasion in 1551.Every February Catania has a festival to honor St. Agatha. It is the second largest religious
festival in Italy and we wanted to be a part of it. A group of us from Aci Trezza went down to Catania and joined the fun. It was packed, you could not see any part of a street that was not full of people. We jostled for position and were able to view the carriage that carries her remains as it went by. From what I can tell every town in Sicily has a patron saint and it is common for parents to name their child after the patron saint of the town they live in. Our neighbor Agatha invited Shannon and Jodi over for some Italian cooking lessons one Sunday. They made Arancini which is some rice balls with meat sauce. They are very common fare at the Tavola Calda restaurants around here and the girls wanted to know how to bring the deliciousness home.
I took some pictures and ate the finished product.
