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.

How The Fiesta Of Virgen Del Carmen Came To Be

Among my writing responsibilities for the Majorca Daily Bulletin is that of being Miquel Ferrà i Martorell, the paper's "history man". (Actually he is one of several, as there is also Andy Rawson, myself, Andy Valente when it comes to the history of food and good old George Giri with his reflections on times of yore.) Miquel has been resident historian for years and when I say I am him, what I mean is that I put his articles into English. Rather than translations, they are often more like English versions on account of editing, and this editing can include additions to the original. And one such addition is the point of this story.

I was going to highlight this week's Miquel article on Facebook when I realised that Miquel has been moved to a Thursday, so it was too late when I discovered the fact; hence, why I am doing so here. The article is about an English saint, Simon Stock, with whom, I fancy, most English people would be unfamiliar.

Simon, whose surname was derived from a word to mean tree trunk as legend has it that he spent several years of his life as a hermit living inside a hollowed-out tree, lived between 1165 and 1265, though there is a question mark over his birth year just as there is also some debate as to whether he was born in Aylesford, Kent or not. But he was certainly closely associated with Aylesford and this association was confirmed when, Simon having abandoned his hermitic existence, the first general chapter of the Carmelite Order to be held outside the Holy Land convened in Aylesford in 1247; Simon had chosen to join the Carmelites.

Without going into the detail of Miquel's article and so to cut to the chase, the most notable occurrence in Simon's devotion was that of a vision he had in 1251 of one of several invocations of the Virgin Mary, i.e. the Virgen del Carmen, whose scapular, represented in many a religious painting, featured the emblem of Mount Carmel. And it is this vision which led to what I added to the article, as it is of some no small relevance to the fiesta of Virgen del Carmen; in Puerto Pollensa, this is the main fiesta of the year.

The important point in this story was the exact date in 1251 when Simon had that vision. It was 16 July, and as a result of the vision, 16 July has long been allocated as the feast date for the Virgen del Carmen. Therefore, the fiesta that is celebrated in Puerto Pollensa can be attributed to this English saint, Simon Stock. Prior to Miquel's article, I was unaware of this fact and I imagine that there are many others who are equally unaware. Given the close connection between Puerto Pollensa and Britain, it seems somehow appropriate, but more than this there is the curiosity of how a current-day fiesta came into being, as, unlike many others, it wasn't dependent upon a saint's day which is typically defined by birth or death.