Saints You've Never Heard Of

If I were to mention the name Praxedis to you, as in the saint, the chances are that your reaction would be - who? As I have now mentioned Praxedis to you, I'm assuming that you are indeed now asking - who? Of course, if you live in Petra, rather better known in religious circles for the missionary who invented California, you would know all about Praxedis: she's your patron saint, whose feast day is 21 July and who is therefore the reason for your summer fiestas.

For everyone else, Praxedis would be an unknown. Hers is saintly obscurity. Like there are celebrities who belong to categories, starting at the top with A and going downwards, there are saints who are well below the A-list. In Mallorcan terms, the A-list can be said to comprise the likes of Pere, known to the rest of the world as Pedro or Peter, one of the Apostles and assured of Mallorcan saintly status because of his sponsorship of the fishing fraternity. Then there is Joan, aka John, on whose behalf the island has been set ablaze recently. Or how about Jordi (George), who doesn't register in the summer stakes but who is a big thing in April, what with the day of the book having been grafted onto his day and with his flag to be found in the odd municipal shield. Mallorca's saints: John, Paul (who shares his feast day with Peter), George and, er ... . Well, there is no Ringo, but what about Rocco or Rocky? Sant Roc, a name also of some obscurity one imagines, but a pretty loud noise in mid-August in the likes of Alaro. 

To return to Praxedis, it is said that very little is known about her, thus making her even more obscure. There's probably a good reason why she is Petra's patron, though I'm blowed if I can find it. Petra's wonderful Gothic parish church is dedicated to Peter, and the parish church is often a clue to a town's patronage, but not in the case of Petra. Maybe, in times past, the good folk of Petra (or whoever) thought to themselves - let's go a bit left field on this patron saint thing, so found a saint beginning with a P who wasn't Peter or Paul and bingo.

Petra is now so associated with Father Junipero Serra, he of Californian fame, that Praxedis is relegated to even greater obscurity, but it would appear that this wasn't always the case. An intriguing aspect of the Junipero story is that, once upon a time, he wasn't that well known in Petra. He was very much better known in America. Until 1884, the only time he was given an honourable mention was when the priest would name him among other illustrious sons of the village. So yes, he was known, he was illustrious, but he wasn't a big deal. Praxedis had the bigger gig: Junipero's name would only be honoured during her fiestas.

If it hadn't been for a seminary student by the name of Francisco Torrens, Praxedis might still assume some supremacy over Junipero. This student, who himself had never heard of Junipero, stumbled across a biography that had been written about him in 1787. He started writing articles for local newspapers and when he latched on to the fact that there had been, in 1884, some significant celebrations in California to mark the one-hundredth anniversary of his death, people started to take a lot more notice of Junipero, including the town hall in Petra: they agreed to name a square after him.

Praxedis is thus condemned to spend eternity overshadowed in her own town by the man who made California what it is today and so by someone who most definitely existed. As with some other saints, the absence of any real insight into the Praxedis back story might suggest that she was an invention, though to be fair, the fact that her remains were said to have been buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla along with those of her equally obscure sister, Pudentiana, would suggest otherwise.

There are other saints in whose names fiestas are held of similar lack of general recognition. Inca, a fairly large town in Mallorcan terms, has two saints - the twin brothers Abdó and Senén. And they were? Well, not uncommonly, they were martyrs but again not a great deal is known about them. Indeed, the Catholic Church dropped them from the global calendar of saints days quite some number of years ago and so therefore from the Catholic liturgy. Permission was given for their worship to continue in places where this had traditionally been the case, and so Abdó and Senén survived in Inca.

There are others - Santa Àgueda, the patron of Sencelles, for instance - who lurk in this saintly B-list and who go to prove that fiestas are not all about the saintly star attractions.