Ceferino Giménez Malla (also known as El Pelé , "the Strong One", or "the Brave One"; August 26, 1861 – August 9, 1936) was a Spanish Romani , a Roman Catholic catechist and activist for Spanish Romani causes, considered the patron saint of Romani people in Roman Catholicism. A victim of the Spanish Republican militias during the Civil War , Ceferino Giménez Malla was beatified on May 4, 1997; May 4 is also his feast day .
17-504: Giménez Malla was born to Juan Jiménez and Josefa Malla, a Catholic Romani family, in either Benavent de Segriá, Lleida or in Alcolea de Cinca, Spain. Sources differ as to whether the year was 1861 or 1865. He was baptized in Fraga , Huesca Province . His father was a cattle-trader. The family usually waited out the winter on farms in places farmers set aside for them, or else they rented a cottage for
34-520: A Catholic ceremony , and bought a house in the Huescan town of Barbastro. Teresa died in 1922. Known for his honesty, Ceferino became something of a leader in the Roma community of Barbastro and the surrounding area. People would seek him out for advice, and to mediate family quarrels. He also resolved disputes between Romani and Spanish people. One day a local landowner, suffering from tuberculosis, passed out on
51-463: A Catholic priest from Republican militiamen. They both were arrested and imprisoned in a former Capuchin monastery, converted into a wartime prison. An acquaintance advised him that he would probably be released if he gave up his rosary, but he refused. A Romani legend has it that the soldiers asked him if he had weapons, and that he answered: "Yes, and here it is", while displaying his rosary . On August 9, Giménez Malla and others were taken by truck to
68-652: A career as a catechist under the guidance of a priest-teacher, Don Nicholas Santos de Otto, teaching both Romani and Spanish children. He had a gift for catechizing children by telling them stories. He became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order , the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and, participated in Thursday night Eucharistic Adoration. In July 1936, during the Spanish Civil War , Giménez Malla tried to defend
85-570: A cemetery and shot. He reportedly died holding the rosary in his hands, and shouting: "Long live Christ the King !". He was buried in a mass grave; his body has never been found. On May 4, 1997, Ceferino Giménez Malla was beatified by Pope John Paul II who said that Malla "knew how to sow harmony and solidarity among his own, also mediating conflicts that sometimes blur the relationship between non-Roma and Roma, showing Christ's love knows no boundaries of race or culture." Approximately 3,000 Roma attended
102-640: A few months. Ceferino often went hungry. Accompanying his father, he became conversant in Catalan as well as Romany. Around 1880 his father abandoned the family and they went to Barbastro , where his uncle taught Ceferino to weave wicker baskets. About the age of twenty, he wed Teresa Jiménez Castro according to a traditional Roma ceremony. They were happily married for forty years. They had no children, but looked after his younger brothers and sisters. Around 1909 they adopted Teresa's orphaned niece, Pepita. In 1912, Giménez Malla and his wife Teresa solemnized their marriage in
119-542: Is also a popular snow skiing destination with notable resorts in Candanchú , Formigal , Astún , Panticosa , and Cerler . The Romans colonised the province of Huesca, which formed the northern part of Hispania Tarraconensis , and continued to live there well into the 5th century until the arrival of the Visigoths . As a mountainous frontier region, it was difficult to dominate. The northern counties had at one time belonged to
136-600: The Kingdom of Navarre but split off and managed to stem early Moorish invasions in the Middle Ages by forming alliances between themselves and with the Franks , to become Frankish feudal marches . The imperative of sovereignty , or independence, for the northern border counts, gave rise to the Kingdom of Aragon , which was the precursor to the Empire or Crown of Aragon , and ultimately
153-557: The Kingdom of Spain . The modern day province comprises 10 comarcas and 202 municipalities. The following comarcas having their capital in Huesca Province include municipal terms within Zaragoza Province : The historical population is given in the following chart: Spanish is the primary language in the province. However, the local linguistic varieties in the center and north of the province (often called fabla ) belong to
170-667: The 2014 census , the municipality has a population of 14,926 inhabitants. King Alfonso I of Aragon died at its walls in 1134 while trying to conquer it during the Battle of Fraga . It was conquered from the Moors by the Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1149. The local language, called Fragatí , is western Catalan . Historically, there was a Jewish community in Fraga. Jews in Fraga enjoyed civil rights under Muslim rule, which
187-624: The Museum of Martyrs in Barbastro. Ceferino is said to have often lent money to poor Roma, and to have also allowed them to remove from the stables the animals they liked most. They could pay their debts when they sold them or at the end of their seasonal work when they could afford to do so. He reportedly also used to feed poor children. Giménez Malla is a described as a pleasant, good-natured, tall, thin man carefully dressed and distinguished looking. Although illiterate, after his wife died, Giménez Malla began
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#1733085125740204-451: The beatification ceremony in Rome, some travelling from as far away as Slovakia and Brazil. He is the first gypsy beatified. Fraga Fraga ( Spanish: [ˈfɾaɣa] ; Catalan: [ˈfɾaɣɛ] ) is the major town of the comarca of Bajo Cinca ( Catalan : Baix Cinca ) in the province of Huesca , Aragon , Spain. It is located by the river Cinca . According to
221-656: The capital city of Huesca . The low population density, 14.62/km², has meant that Huesca's lush valleys, rivers, and lofty mountain ranges have remained relatively pristine and unspoiled by progress. Home to majestic scenery, the tallest mountain in the Pyrenees , the Aneto ; eternal glaciers, such as at Monte Perdido; and the National Park of Ordesa and Monte Perdido , rich in flora and protected fauna. Popular with mountaineers , spelunkers , paragliders , and white water rafters , it
238-499: The central Pyrenees , Huesca borders France and the French departments of Haute-Garonne , Pyrénées-Atlantiques , and Hautes-Pyrénées . Within Spain, Huesca's neighboring provinces are Navarre , Zaragoza , and Lleida . Covering a primarily mountainous area of 15 626 km² , the province of Huesca has a total population of 219,345 in 2018, with almost a quarter of its people living in
255-410: The establishment of a nursing home . The town hospital was enlarged from 20 beds to 100, and running water was provided to the hospital for the first time to combat Typhus . Huesca (province) Huesca ( Aragonese : Uesca ; Catalan : Osca ), officially Huesca/Uesca , is a province of northeastern Spain , in northern Aragon . The capital is Huesca . Positioned just south of
272-411: The street. Heedless of the danger of contagion, Malla hoisted the man on his shoulders and carried him home. The grateful family rewarded him with a sum sufficient to start a business buying and selling surplus mules which the French army no longer needed after World War I. Tools with which he cleaned horseshoes and iron shoes for mules and donkeys were donated by the son of Ceferino's friend, Ferruchón, to
289-673: Was not always the case in other historical Spanish Jewish communities. They were given autonomy, including the right to defend themselves against attacks and the right to elect their representatives. The community ceased to exist due to the expulsion of the Muslims and Jews in 1492. The town was controlled by anarcho-syndicalists associated with CNT during the Spanish Revolution of 1936 . They carried out collective farming , price controls , wartime rationing , interest-free banking, sanitation programs , public works , tree planting and
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