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On 14 January (and then from 18 to 20 August) in Ascoli Satriano is celebrated San Potito, a pagan convert to Christianity and for this martyred by the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
The legend tells of a mule track of Tricarico that, directed to Ascoli Satriano, on the Palmo-Palazzo d'Ascoli-Foggia and the Carapelle creek lost a donkey. The animal, exhausted by the heavy load it carried, sank in the mud, remaining imprisoned. The mule-driver then moved the cargo of goods from the donkey and suppressed it on the spot, skinning it to sell its skin. Before returning to the road, he prayed to San Potito, who was said to have been martyred in that place and, after walking a short stretch of road, had the impression of hearing the donkey growl. Impressed by this phenomenon, the man returned to his steps until he ran into the donkey that was coming towards him. And the mule-track covered the beast with his skin, and brought him to the place where he was bogged down. The man, convinced of being faced with a miracle, began to dig praying and, among the muds of the mephite, surfaced the intact body of a teenager who was believed to be that of San Potito. The mule-track worthily composed the sacred remains and transported them to Tricarico. To commemorate the prodigious event the Ascolans went on pilgrimage to the site of the martyrdom of their Saint, where they arrived in procession and celebrated an outdoor mass in honor of San Potito.
Today the tradition of pilgrimage has been lost, but In Ascoli it is customary on January 14 to celebrate the child martyr: San Potito is in fact the patron saint of Ascoli Satriano, where there is a church, with adjoining convent, named after it and of which, in the former cathedral, there is a bust (containing an urn) which is carried in procession through the streets of the village. The day of celebrations begins in the morning with the shooting of mortaretti, the procession of the bust of the Saint through the streets of the city accompanied by the band “City of Ascoli Satriano - A. Sarni” and Holy Mass. In the afternoon the Pontifical Mass is celebrated and then there is the fireworks show with the traditional lighting of the “pacifier of San Potito'', the paper donkey stuffed with mortaretti.
