Saint Fina

Fina (Serafina) (1238–1253) was an Italian Christian virgin who is especially 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, according to legends, Saint Gregory the Great appeared to her to predict her death.

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. She learned to sew and spin, spending most of her time at home. 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.

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.

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.

When Fina's body was removed from the pallet that was her deathbed, onlookers saw white violets bloom from the wood, confirmed by Pope Paul III in 1538, permitted the public cult and veneration of Saint Fina. Her feast on 12 March 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.

Fina is considered a patroness and protector of the town along with Saint Gimignano. Also depicted is 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.

Inside the Civic Museum of San Gimignano there is a wood tabernacle painted by Lorenzo di Niccolò in 1402 depicting Saint Fina holding a model of San Gimignano along with eight scenes of her life and miracles. Another image of Fina is in the nearby church of Sant'Agostino, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli. Other artists depicting the saint's life include Piero del Pollaiuolo and Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

Fra Giovanni del Coppo wrote the earliest hagiography of Saint Fina (“Historia vita et morte di Sancta Fina da San Gimignano”, written on 14th century and translated from Latin by Jacopo Manducci in 1575). 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).