Saint Potenciana

Saint Potenciana, also known as Potentiana in Latin, was a Spanish anchoress who likely lived in the 15th or 16th century. Although not formally canonized and absent from the Roman Martyrology, she is venerated locally as a saint. Her tomb, located in the Church of All Saints on the Guadalquivir River, was considered sacred by locals, who believed her to be a woman living in poverty, working as a weaver, and buried within the church. People sought miraculous cures from ailments like malaria by taking soil from her tomb. In 1628, Juan Acuña del Adarve initiated an examination of her cult, during which witnesses reported seeing remains of her loom and suggested she might have been walled in her home near the church. Her relics were temporarily moved to Villanueva, with some distributed to Andújar and Jaén Cathedral. In 1636, Bishop Moscoso de Sandoval officially recognized the cult. The relics were relocated again in 1640 but returned due to flooding concerns. They were later thrown into a river during the church's destruction in 1936. Theories suggest she might have been martyred by being walled in, though there is no evidence of persecution. Her Mass was for non-martyr virgins. She is remembered as an ordinary woman living a hermit-like life near the church, earning local reverence for comfort and aid. Saint Potenciana is the patron saint of Villanueva de la Reina and was Andújar’s until 1909. Additionally, she is the patroness of the Philippines because Miguel Lopez de Legazpi captured Manila ...