Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/March 12

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. (Full article...)
Attributes: Violets, depicted with Saint Gregory the Great, or lying on her wooden board
Patronage: physically challenged people, spinners
See also: Theophanes the Confessor; Symeon the New Theologian; Luigi Orione