Ceferino Giménez Malla (also known as ''El Pelé'', "the Strong One", or "the Brave One"; 26 August 1861 – 9 August 1936) was a
Spanish Romani Catholic
catechist
Catechesis (; from Greek language, Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of Conversion to Christia ...
and activist. A victim of the
Republican militias during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, Giménez Malla was
beatified
Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...
on 4 May 1997, now his
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
. He is the
patron
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...
of
Romani people
{{Infobox ethnic group
, group = Romani people
, image =
, image_caption =
, flag = Roma flag.svg
, flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress
, po ...
.
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.
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 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 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 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 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.][ He had a gift for catechizing children by telling them stories. He became a member of the ]Secular Franciscan Order
The Secular Franciscan Order (; abbreviated OFS) is part of the Third Order of Saint Francis, third branch of the Franciscans, Franciscan family formed by Catholic Church, Catholic men and women who seek to observe the Gospel of Jesus in Christia ...
,["Patron Saint of the Rom and Sinti", Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People]
/ref> the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and, participated in Thursday night Eucharistic Adoration.[
In July 1936, during the ]Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, Giménez Malla tried to defend a Catholic priest from Republican militiamen. They both were arrested and imprisoned in a former Capuchin monastery, converted into a wartime prison.[Bohlen, Celestine. "Spanish Martyr Is First Gypsy Beatified by Catholic Church", ''New York Times'', May 5, 1997]
/ref> 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
The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...
. On August 9, Giménez Malla and others were taken by truck to a cemetery and shot. He reportedly died holding the rosary in his hands, and shouting: "Long live Christ the King
Christ the King is a title of Jesus in Christianity referring to the idea of the Kingdom of God where Christ is described as being seated at the right hand of God.
Many Christian denominations consider the kingly office of Christ to be one o ...
!".[ He was buried in a mass grave; his body has never been found.
]
Veneration
On 4 May 1997, Ceferino Giménez Malla was beatified by Pope
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
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."[Vilches, Isabel Orellana. "Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla, 'Pele'", ''Zenit'', August 2, 2013]
/ref>
Approximately 3,000 Roma attended the beatification ceremony in Rome, some travelling from as far away as Slovakia and Brazil.[ He is the first gypsy beatified.
]
References
Further reading
Agasso, Domenico. "Beato Zeffirino (Ceferino) Gimenez Malla", Famiglia Christiani
in Italian (translation available).
External links
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071030200940/http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id544.htm Bl. Ceferino Jimenez, by Father Robert F. McNamara
Saints. Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla
in Spanish
in Spanish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gimenez Malla, Ceferino
1861 births
1936 deaths
People from Bajo Cinca
Romani Christians
Spanish Romani people
Spanish beatified people
Members of the Third Order of Saint Francis
People executed by Spain by firing squad
Roman Catholic activists
19th-century Spanish educators
Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
20th-century venerated Christians
Beatifications by Pope John Paul II
20th-century Spanish educators