Maria Torribia

Maria Toribia (died 1175) was a Spanish peasant woman who is believed to have married Saint Isidore. She is known in Spain as Santa María de la Cabeza ("Saint Mary of the Head").

Life Maria's date of birth is unknown, but it was sometime near the end of the 11th century or at the beginning of the 12th century. She is believed to have been born in Caraquiz, a little village close to Uceda, in the current-day Spanish province of Guadalajara. She subsequently lived in Torrelaguna, in current-day Madrid Province. There, she met and married Isidore, a simple farmer from Madrid (who, according to some sources, had fled there as a result of the Almoravid invasion), with whom she had her only son, Illan. According to legend, the child one day fell down a deep well, leaving the parents with no recourse but prayer. Miraculously, the water level suddenly rose to the level of the ground, and the floating baby was easily rescued unharmed. As a result of this, she and her husband committed themselves to sexual abstinence as a form of devotion, and, from that time on, lived in different homes. Their son later died in infancy.

One story relates that Maria always kept a pot of stew on the fireplace in their humble rural dwelling. She knew that her husband Isidore would often bring home anyone who was hungry. One day he brought home more hungry people than usual. After she served many of them, Maria told him that there simply was no more stew in the pot. He insisted that she check the pot again, and she was able to spoon out enough stew to feed them all. and had visions. For instance, legend suggests that every night she dreamed of the Virgin Mary, who would cross the Jarama River while extending her pure cloak over the waters.

Veneration

After Isidore's death, Maria became a hermit. She was said to have performed miracles and merited after her death the byname de la Cabeza, because the relic of her head (conserved in a reliquary and carried in procession) has often brought rain from heaven to dry countrysides.

After being moved several times, her relics were eventually gathered in 1769 at the Real Colegiata de San Isidro in Madrid where they remain for public veneration. They are placed with the uncorrupted body of her husband.