Festival of St. Matthew and St. Justin

The Patron Saints of Fabrica di Roma are San Mateo and San Giustino, who are celebrated every year in a crescendo of events and performances that begin in the week in which 21 September falls. During the three or four days of festivities banquets are prepared, a Goods Fair takes place on the Sunday that falls in this period, and short plays and shows for children and adults are performed on the main streets. There are many outdoor tables and lots of participants. A feature strongly tied to the folk veneration of the patron saint is the "race" of the Icon of St. Matthew which is held on the evening of September 21. Those carrying the canopy with the statue of the saint sprint up the steep slopes that lead from the ring road from the church to Piazza Duomo, where they are greeted by thunderous applause from the crowd while a hail of fireworks descends from the Castello della Rocca to meet them. St. Justin, the second patron of Fabrica di Roma, is brought out on 22 September every five years in a casket with a wax body and relics, and is celebrated with the same solemn transportation as San Matteo: the same rituals, the same brotherhood of porters who lead him on the path between the historic centre and Via Roma, to the Church of Our Lady of Mercy. Within days of the festivities is the running of the carts that takes place the day of the patron saint in the middle of the afternoon and takes place on Via San Giorgio, where carts made by hand by the participants descend the ring road at breakneck speed from the church to Via Roma.