The slopes of the hill form the traditional gitano quarter of the city; and on the Sunday following the 1st February each year, are also the location of the Fiesta of San Cecilio, when large crowds gather to celebrate the city's first bishop and Granada's patron saint, Caecilius of Elvira (San Cecilio). The fiesta and abbey act as key instruments for the preservation, propagation and dissemination of the pious legend of Saint Caecilius, by which the city of Granada in the 17th century sought to redefine its historic identity, replacing its Moorish past with fabricated (or re-discovered) accounts of Christian origins
The legend states that the catacombs are the site of Saint Caecilius's martyrdom, and the abbey preserves the supposed relics of Caecilius and eleven other saints' bones, ashes and the oven in which they were believed to have been burned. It also possesses the inscribed lead plaques and books that were found with the supposed relics, but which were subsequently officially dismissed as forgeries. These are known as the Lead Books of Sacromonte.