Devotion to St. Anthony has been present in Poggioreale since its very beginning in the late 1600s. Sindaco Mimmo Cangelosi tells us that the appearance of the devotion to St. Anthony came with the very first inhabitants of Poggioreale who were of Gibellinese origin.  In fact, a Convent of the Minor Conventuals already existed in Gibellina. S. Antonio da Padova was called the "tutelary patron of the land of Poggioreale" by the Bishop of Mazara in a document by Monsignor Michele Scavo, dated August 5, 1769, he stated that June 13 as a feast day.