The question as to what makes a city prosperous, and how a city responds to crises that challenge its resilience, yields different responses in different historical periods. The city of Utrecht offers a relevant case to study these questions from a cultural perspective because of the historically layered heritage of its answers. In the course of its history, the city changed roles a number of times. Founded as an outpost of the Roman military, it developed into the most important ecclesiastical centre of the northern Low Countries in the Middle Ages as well as an important crossroads of trade routes. Throughout that period, the urban community of Utrecht identified with its local patron saint, the charitable figure of Saint-Martin who shared his cloak with a poor beggar. Through the centuries, the celebration of the urban patron saint was a continuum, while it took different appearances and performative expressions. In recent decades, newly invented Saint Martin-traditions find expression in street performances and participatory art. These new traditions focus primarily on social cohesion through involving vulnerable and marginalized neighborhoods with culturally and religiously mixed populations in the traditional celebration of the patron saint. The language expressing cultural efforts to contribute to the sustainability and resilience of the city and its urban community shows the transformative power of both the urban populace and the symbolic figure of sharing and participation. While the medieval city responded to the libertas it acquired in 1122 with the building of walls, this same event was celebrated in 2022 under the title ‘Utrecht Without Walls’. In both historical moments, the same symbol of sharing and participation imagined by the traditional patron saint played a crucial role. The present chapter discusses the transformative power of an urban community relating to its ancient patron saint in new ways to address issues of inclusion, social cohesion, and prosperity in a modern city.