Santa Calamanda

Who they were

Calamanda, or Calamandra, is a martyr who according to an ancient tradition was born at Calaf (Anoia, Catalonia) and lived, in one telling, in the 8th century, and was martyred at the time of the Muslim domination of Spain; another tradition instead counts her among the companions of Saint Ursula, put to death by the Huns near Cologne around the middle of the 5th century. She is honoured as patroness of Calaf and of Soller de Lladrus, where she is invoked in times of drought and, according to many accounts, has often obtained rain for those dry regions through her intercession.

Her relics are kept in the collegiate church of St James at Calaf, in the diocese of Vic, where a formal recognition of the relics in the second half of the 16th century confirmed her veneration and approved a youth confraternity in her honour. She is remembered and celebrated in the diocese of Vic on 5 February.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Martyr honoured at Calaf in Catalonia since ancient tradition, invoked for rain in times of drought; feast 5 February.