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Elisenda de Sant ClimentElisenda de Sant Climent (c. 1220–1275), was a Catalan woman who was captured as a slave.[1][2] She was born to Guillem Ramon de Sant Climent and married a Catalan farmer on Mallorca; they belonged to the Catalan colonists on Mallorca after the island was conquered by Aragon in 1229.[2] They had a daughter, Guillemona.[1][3] In 1238, during the conquest of Valencia, Elisenda and her family was captured by Islamic slave traders on a raid on Mallorca. She and her daughter were taken to a harem of the emir of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis, Muhammad I al-Mustansir. Her daughter was made Muslim and took the name Rocaia, and became the influential favorite of the son of the emir, Miromomeli, which gave also her mother privileges.[2] Elisenda made contact with the Catalan merchant Arnau Solsona who lived in Tunis, and eventually married him.[3][2] She acquired items sent to her by her daughter, from the palace of the emir. Among them was a relic, sent to Elisenda by her daughter for the purpose of transferring it into Christian ownership.[4] The relic consisted of a piece of the cloth which she described as a bit of the bandage the Virgin Mary used when tending to the wounds of Jesus.[1][3] This relic was placed in the Old Cathedral of Lleida, where it was long preserved, and the story of Elisenda told. In 1297, Arnau Solsona related this story as a witnessed declaration on his deathbed.[5] References
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