The flower offering of La Beata Francinaina Cirer. | JUANJO ROIG
Santa Catalina Thomàs is well known as La Beata.
Mallorca's first saint (Juniper Serra was the second); she was beatified in 1792 and then canonised in 1930. Fiestas for Catalina Thomàs are held in Valldemossa (her birthplace), Santa Margalida, Vilafranca and Palma.
There is a less well-known Beata - Francinaina Cirer. Born in Sencelles in 1781, she was beatified by John Paul II in 1989. Illiterate and from a peasant family, she helped her parents and older siblings until her father died when she was aged 40. It was only then that she truly started her life in dedication to God.
In 1850, she was entrusted with supervising the community of Sisters of Charity in Sencelles, offering comfort to the poor and sick. Various miracles were attributed to her, such as healing children's diseases.
She died on February 27, 1855. This date became her feast day, the fiestas being subdued in her remembrance but featuring a floral offer procession. In Santanyi, there is a cavalcade on Sunday.
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