Saint Serafina

Fina (Serafina)(1238–1253) was an Italian Christian girl who is venerated in the Tuscan town of San Gimignano. She developed a paralytic illness and spent the rest of her life on a bed made from a wooden pallet, where Saint Gregory the Great allegedly appeared to her to predict her death. Miraculous healings were later attributed to her intercession.

Fina is celebrated in San Gimignano on both March 12, the anniversary of her death, and the first Sunday in August. Her relics are kept in a chapel in the Collegiata di San Gimignano. A hospital in San Gimignano was formerly named in her honor and several paintings of her can be found in the town.

Life

Fina dei Ciardi was born in San Gimignano in 1238. The daughter of Cambio and Imperiera Ciardi, a declined noble family, she lived in a humble house located in the historic centre of the famous “city of beautiful towers” (today the small road on which her house stands takes her name). There is little record of the first ten years of her life, and what information available comes from legends narrated after her death. Some accounts note Fina's strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and that she went out only to hear Mass.

In 1248, Fina contracted a serious illness which progressively left her paralysed. Instead of a bed, she chose to lie on a wooden pallet. Eventually, she developed painful pressure sores. During her illness, she lost her father and later her mother died after a fall. Despite these trials she never complained, but kept a joyful countenance and gave thanks to God.Ghezzi, Bert. ''Voices of the Saints''
Loyola Press,

Fina's immense devotion was an example to all the citizens of San Gimignano, who frequently visited her. Visitors were surprised to receive words of encouragement from a desperately ill young girl who was resigned to the will of God. Fina had a particular devotion to Saint Gregory the Great. On March 4, 1253, after five years of sickness and pain, she allegedly experienced a vision of St. Gregory, wherein he foretold her death. Fina died as predicted on March 12 at the age of 15.

Legends

Miracles attributed to Fina are mentioned in stories, paintings, poems and in notary documents. Legends say that, at the exact moment of Fina's passing away, all the bells of San Gimignano rang without anyone touching them.

When Fina's body was removed from the pallet that was her deathbed, onlookers saw white violets bloom from the wood, and smelt a fresh, floral fragrance throughout her house. Violets grow on the walls of San Gimignano. For this reason, the townspeople call them “The Saint Fina violets.”

For several days, pilgrims went to the Pieve to see Fina's remains and during that time there were reports of a number of cures. One concerned her nurse Beldia, whose hand was healed. Many sick people who visited her grave during the following years were said to have experienced cures and some of these became some of Fina's most fervent devotees.

One legend tells that during a walk with two of her friends she heard a young girl, Smeralda, crying. Smeralda had broken a pitcher that her mother had given her in order to fill with water from the public well. While she was entertained by other children, she forgot the pitcher on the ground which unfortunately rolled down and broke. Fina told her to arrange the pieces and put them under the water: the pitcher became whole and full of water.

Another anecdote about Fina's miracles is the one of the Ciardi family's neighbor. Once on the anniversary of Fina's death, when the townsfolk had declared a holiday in her honor, a neighbor, Cambio di Rustico, went to cut wood and hurt his leg. He asked Fina's pardon and was very sorry for not having respected her memorial. His cut then miraculously disappeared.

Veneration

Fina's body was brought to the Pieve Prepositura and during the transfer, the crowd proclaimed “The Saint is dead!”

Fina dei Ciardi has never been formally canonized, but her cultus is strong in her hometown of San Gimignano, where she is celebrated on two separated days. Her first feast is on March 12 – the anniversary of her death – which has been a statutory holiday in the town since 1481. The second feast on the first Sunday of August commemorates her stopping two plagues that ravaged the town in 1479 and 1631. On both days, her relics are carried in procession in order to bless the town.

The official patron saint of the town remains Saint Gimignano.

The hospital

The most important thing “produced” in the memory of Saint Fina is the “spedale” (hospital), which took her name and was built in 1255 thanks to donations given at her tomb. The hospital gave hospitality to old and poor people and pilgrims too. It became in the following century one of the best in Tuscany. The building changed its name in 1816 and remained in function until the end of the 20th century. In the hospital's chapel, the original oak wood table where Saint Fina lay down for five years is preserved.

Iconography and biographies

The most important monument dedicated to Saint Fina is her chapel (designed by Giuliano da Maiano in 1468 and consecrated in 1488) located inside the Collegiata di San Gimignano where, inside the altar (built by the brother Benedetto da Maiano), the bones are kept. On the left and right walls of the Chapel there are two frescoes painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio: one shows the vision of Saint Gregory; the other shows the funeral where the violets in blossom on the towers are represented. We also see an angel ringing the bells, Beldia's cured hand and the self-portrait of the painter and his brother-in-law Mainardi, who painted the chapel's ceiling. On the altar there is a bust with Saint Fina's relics inside.

Inside the Civic Museum of San Gimignano there is a wood tabernacle (by Lorenzo di Niccolò 1402) depicting Saint Fina with the town on her lap, an icon of St Gregory and some of her anecdotes. Another image of Fina is in the nearby Sant'Agostino Church, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli. Other artists depicting the saint's life were Piero del Pollaiuolo and Pier Francesco Fiorentino. In others small churches in the countryside other painting about Saint Fina were discovered.

The most credited hagiography of Saint Fina is the one of Fra’ Giovanni del Coppo (“Historia vita et morte di Sancta Fina da San Gimignano”, written on 14th century and translated from Latin by Jacopo Manducci in 1575), who lived closest in time to Saint Fina. Many others have tried to tell Saint Fina's life (Enrico Castaldi, Giovanni Bollando, Filippo Buonaccorsi, Teodoro Ferroni, Ignazio Malenotti, Luigi Pecori, Ugo Nomi Veronesi Pesciolini, and Enrico Fiumi).

The best and most updated book is “Fina dei Ciardi”, written by Profesoressa Iole Imberciadori Vichi in 1979: a deep research of all documents and biography existing in San Gimignano archives.

See also

* Saint Fina, patron saint archive

References

Notes

#The old Italian name was “Lo spedale”, the modern name is “L’ ospedale”.

Sources

Iole Vichi Imberciadori – ''Fina dei Ciardi'' (1979)

External links

St. Fina
* ttp://www.abcgallery.com/G/ghirlandao/ghirlandaio16.html The Funeral of St. Fina by Domenico Ghirlandaio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fina, Saint
1238 births
1253 deaths
People from San Gimignano
13th-century Christian saints
13th-century Italian people
13th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Roman Catholic child saints
Italian children
Italian Roman Catholic saints
13th-century Italian women
Christian female saints of the Middle Ages
San Gimignano
Tuberculosis deaths in Italy
Infectious disease deaths in Tuscany