Fermin to Pamplona in 1196, the city decided to mark the occasion with an annual event. Over the centuries, the saint's festival, the ancient annual fair and the running of the bulls and subsequent bullfights have all melded together. The Abbey of Saint-Acheul in Amiens was founded in 1085 on the supposed tomb of Saint Firmin. Under the choir of the abbey's church there is a vault in the place where the body of Saint Firmin was miraculously discovered. The cult of St Firmin was of great religious and economic importance to Amiens during the Middle Ages and into modern times.
San Fermín and a different "encaste" (sub-breed) of bull appears each day. The event begins at 8 a.m. when a first firecracker is lit to announce the release of the bulls from their corral. Before the year 1924 it started at 6 and at 7 between 1924 and 1974. Runners gather earlier at the beginning of the itinerary to ask for the protection of the Saint by singing a chant three times before a small statue of San Fermín which has been placed in a raised niche in a wall: “"To San Fermin we ask to be our patron saint and to