Cathedral of Saint Stephen
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Designed by the architect Francesco Valenti, whose planning was partially modified by engineers Mario Pagano and Giovanni Crinò, the Cathedral was built on an area obtained from the demolition of the eighteenth century Teatro Comunale and the seventeenth century Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in place of the old, which had been closed to the cult because seriously damaged during the bloody battle of July 20, 1860 between the Bourbon and Garibaldi troops. It was inaugurated on 27 December 1953 by Mgr. Giudo Tonetti, Coadjutor Archbishop of Messina, who dedicated it to Santo Stefano Protomartire Patron Principal of the “Nobilissima City”.

The cult of this saint dates back to 1481 when some Chaldean priests of orthodox faith, translating an old parchment with oriental characters, revealed how the bones of an arm found twenty years earlier inside the altar of the Byzantine church of S. Maria del Boschetto belonged to the Protomartyr and had been deposited there in medieval age.
The people and clergy of Milazzo obtained the consent to venerate these relics, so in 1521 they put S. Stefano as new protector of the city.
The festival was set for the first Sunday of August to celebrate 3 August 1461, day of the invention of the Holy Arm. The building is tripartite with side aisles divided by five arches.
On the right aisle there is a large altarpiece of S. Andrea and S. Pietro (1800), while the altar of S. Giovanni Bosco precedes the transept section with in the center the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1956) with an eighteenth-century cartapesta statue. On the sides of the altar there are two canvases by Scipione Manni: The Adoration of the Magi (1755) and the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (1753). On the front wall we find the wooden crucifix and stucco of unknown author, repainted in 1961. In the left aisle is placed a lithic bas-relief of the Madonna and Child of the Florentine school, the stonehouse instead is a Gaginesca work carved for the Renaissance Church of the Annunciation to the Castle. Immediately after we find the table of the Nativity, or Adoration of the Shepherds, dated 1573 and still the altar dedicated to St. Rita (1964) that hosts the statue of the Saint (1932).

Following is the painting dedicated to the Martyrdom of S. Stefano (1729) by Messinese Letterio Paladino. The adjacent altar, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is from 1957. We then find the canvas of SS. Martiri Milazzesi (victims, between 251 and 257, of the persecution carried out by Tertullo, governor of Sicily, on an edict of the Emperor Decio), work of unknown, commissioned in 1622 by the Jurors for the ancient Cathedral. Two other works by Scipione Manni are present inside the Mother Church: in the front wall of the transept a canvas, the Madonna del Lume (1754), and the Velario Pasquale, used on the occasion of Holy Week. The Renaissance baptismal font comes from the Old Cathedral, while the high altar is a neoclassical work of the late eighteenth century. Between 1991 and 1992 was built the rear structure suitable to house the statue of S. Stefano, made in 1784 by the sculptor Filippo Quattrocchi Romano and on whose sides are placed two tables by Antonello de Saliba dated 1531: S. Pietro and S. Paolo.
In the presbytery there are three other works by this artist, at the center the Nativity and two small paintings representing St. Rocco and St. Thomas. In the upper part the Annunciation, attributed to the painter from Messina Antonio Giuffrè as well as, on the opposite side, St. Nicholas enthroned and stories of his life (1485). In the roof, with polychrome and decorated coffers, are two frescoes depicting episodes of the life of St. Stephen Protomartire. The eight medallions on the two walls of the central nave depict: S. Stefano, S. Francesco da Paola, the Santi Martiri Milazzesi, the Milazzese S. Leone II Papa, S. Gaetano, S. Antonio da Padova, the Beato Annibale Maria di Francia and S. Eustochia Smeralda Calafato. The sacristy is furnished with eighteenth-century furniture, while the bell tower is characterized by five bells, four of which come from the Old Cathedral.

The Treasury is composed of a gilded silver monstrance from 1500, probably donated by an English prelate at the time of Henry VIII Tudor, from the reliquary of the Arm of St. Stephen in silver and gilded silver from 1688, by another silver reliquary with the wood of the Holy Cross, two crowns in offset silver of the seventeenth century and the silver ray that adorns, on the solemnity, the head of St. Stephen.

In the small church of Santa Maria del Boschetto (contrada Parco) was found, more than five centuries ago, a lead box in which there was a relic and an ancient parchment written with characters not able to decipher.
In the year 1481, as he recounted in his “Milazzo sacro” (1696) Father Francesco Perdichizzi, Capuchin, and in the transcript that Eng. Domenico Ryolo made the copy written in 800 by Giuseppe Piaggia, “passing through Milazzo some Caldei priests and reading the writing found their own language and reported that among these relics was the arm of St.Stephen Protomartire.”
“They did not give the Milazzesi to those priests full faith, but by resorting to the archbishop he took care of them to make better diligence in making the writing recognized again.