Places of worship of San Filippo D'Agira
The close link between the saint and Agira is symbolized by the presence of different places of worship to which legends are linked.
According to tradition, San Filippo d'Agira, who lived in Roman times, was sent to Agira immediately after his priestly ordination to free the city from the demons that afflicted it at that time.
The first place linked to the cult of San Filippo d'Agira is the Grotto of San Filippo, a place that the saint chose as his home and which, according to popular belief, was also the scene of some struggles against the devil.
On the top of the city of Agira is the small church of the castle, built by San Filippo in honor of San Pietro to ward off the demons that inhabited them and that afflicted the whole town. According to tradition, right from the castle, the Saint, following a bet with the devil, threw a stone which then stopped in what is now Via Roma but is known to all as a petra 'i San Fulippu. At the point where the boulder stopped, the sulfur miners built a small chapel containing an altar in honor of the saint.
Another place linked to the figure of San Filippo d'Agira is located in Piazza Europa. The current chapel, built in 1972, replaces an older one on whose origins there are two different stories: the first story tells that to build the chapel called "'a tripuzzedda" were three girls who, thrown out of the house by their mother because of poverty, they were helped by St. Philip, who appeared to them with the appearance of an old man, to find a hidden treasure; the second story attributes the construction of the chapel to popular piety following an attempted theft of the saint's simulacrum.
Another place linked to the cult of the saint is the fountain of Maimone in the Urselluzzo district. According to popular tradition, the fountain was the site of another challenge between St. Philip and the devil: in a cave adjacent to the fountain lived the demon Maimon whom the saint managed to defeat and chain inside the fountain.
The place of worship par excellence of San Filippo is the Cateva, or crypt, located under the abbey dedicated to the saint, the burial place of San Filippo d'Agira and a pilgrimage destination for devotees.
