🔗 Share this article

The Spanish parishioner who made international headlines for her infamous repair job on a cherished Jesus Christ fresco has died at the age 94.

The woman, from the town of Borja in northeast Spain, became a global sensation 13 years ago after she attempted to repaint a century-old painting titled Ecce Homo located in her local church.

Giménez's restoration effort quickly went viral and was dubbed "Potato Jesus", because the resulting likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.

Official Confirmation and Homage

The 94-year-old's passing was announced by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "great enthusiast of painting from a very early age".

"Descansa en paz Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," Arilla wrote.

Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in August 2012, which "due to the poor state of conservation it presented, Cecilia, with the best intentions, decided to apply new paint over the original".

The Painting's History and the Fateful Intervention

The Ecce Homo ("This is the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century artist Elias Garcia Martinez had been held for over a hundred years in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church close to Zaragoza.

At the time, Giménez, who was 81 years old, explained that parishioners had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had received permission from the parish priest to do the work.

She added at the time that anybody who came into the church would have seen she was applying paint to the original artwork.

An Unexpected Economic Lifeline

The aftermath of the repaint job led to the creation of the "Ecce Mono" meme and saw the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a major visitor attraction.

The municipality, which had previously seen only five thousand visitors per year, received more than 40,000 tourists by 2013, and managed to raise over €50,000 for charity from the interest.

Currently, officials estimate that somewhere around 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja every year to view the notorious painting, which is now displayed behind a pane of glass.

Later Life and Local Support

After recovering from the initial backlash, with support from the townspeople and well-wishers around the world, Giménez went on to hold an exhibition of her paintings showcasing 28 of her own works.

She was praised by the mayor for her kind-hearted nature and decades of dedication to the parish.

In the end, what began as a sincere but flawed art repair forged an unlikely piece of pop culture and provided remarkable tourist revenue to a humble Spanish town.