On 26 and 27 January, 2018, in the Principality, the celebrations of Saint Devote, Patron Saint of Monaco took place.

On the evening of 26 January, T.S.Hs. the Prince and the Princess, along with Their children, Crown Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, took part in the traditional mass (Worship of the Holy Sacrament) in Saint Devote church, and ignited the symbolic boat on the square, in the presence of the representatives of the Monegasque Institutions.

Since 1924, in the reign of Prince Louis II, a boat has been burned on the evening of 26 January.

On Saturday 27 January, at the end of the religious Ceremony which took place at the Cathedral of Monaco, a procession involving the Penitents of the Archconfraternity of Mercy presented the relics to the Princely Family on the Place du Palais.

According to legend, Devote, a young Christian woman from Corsica was martyred by the Romans in the 4th century and her remains, placed in a boat, drifted to what is now the Port of Monaco.

From the 16th century, at the same time as the declaration of their sovereignty, the Grimaldi dynasty encouraged the cult of Saint Devote. Saint Devote is the patron and protector of the Princely Family and of the Principality.