Ceferino Giménez Malla
Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla Huesca Province, Spain | |
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Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Beatified | May 4, 1997 by Pope John Paul II |
Feast | May 4 |
Patronage | Romani people |
Ceferino Giménez Malla (also known as El Pelé, "the Strong One", or "the Brave One"; August 26, 1861 – August 9, 1936) was a
Biography
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.
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.[4]
One day a local landowner, suffering from tuberculosis, passed out on 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.[3] Tools with which he cleaned horseshoes and iron shoes for mules and donkeys were donated by the son of Ceferino's friend, Ferruchón, to 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 a career as a catechist under the guidance of a priest-teacher, Don Nicholas Santos de Otto, teaching both Romani and Spanish children.
In July 1936, during the
Veneration
On May 4, 1997, Ceferino Giménez Malla was beatified by
Approximately 3,000 Roma attended the beatification ceremony in Rome, some travelling from as far away as Slovakia and Brazil.[6]
References
- ^ "Ceferino Giménez Malla - Vincentian Encyclopedia". Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ a b c Vilches, Isabel Orellana. "Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla, 'Pele'", Zenit, August 2, 2013
- ^ a b Gianpiero Pettiti. "Blessed Zefirino Gimenez Malla". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ ""Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla", Franciscan Media". Archived from the original on 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
- ^ a b c "Patron Saint of the Rom and Sinti", Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
- ^ a b Bohlen, Celestine. "Spanish Martyr Is First Gypsy Beatified by Catholic Church", New York Times, May 5, 1997
Further reading
- Agasso, Domenico. "Beato Zeffirino (Ceferino) Gimenez Malla", Famiglia Christiani in Italian (translation available).
External links
- Homily for Beatification of Five Servants of Gods on Vatican site
- Bl. Ceferino Jimenez, by Father Robert F. McNamara
- Saints. Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla
- Biographies of Blesseds - 1997: Cerefino Giménez Malla
- Beato Ceferino Giménez Malla in Spanish
- San Ceferino Giménez Malla Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine in Spanish