Maria Perpinyà i Sais (Verges 1901 – Banyoles 1994)
A writer, journalist, and translator, she became known from 1925 onwards following several publications in the press.
Maria Perpinyà contributed to renewing the Verges Procession texts by adapting earlier material, revising its language and also writing passages of her own. According to Màriam Serrà (p. 43), a reading of the poem Dansa de la Mort a Verges with musical accompaniment took place in Verges in 1977 and was broadcast on 29 March on the second television channel as part of the programme Giravolt.
She authored the books Poemes (Poems, 1931) and Terra de Vent (Land of Wind, 1936). Her notable collaborations include publications such as: D’Ací i d’Allà, Ciutat, La Nau, Esplai, Llegiu-me, Joia, La Revista, El Dia (Terrassa), La Nova Revista, La Veu de Catalunya. According to some sources, she also contributed to: Revista d’Olot, Diari de Mataró, L’Avi Munné (Sant Feliu de Guíxols), Aires de la Conca (Montblanc), and La Riuada (Mora d’Ebre).
She was an editor for the Catholic newspaper El Matí. She also belonged to Acció Femenina (AF), the Associació Protectora de l’Ensenyança Catalana (APEC) and the women’s section of Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC), according to the municipal biography. In 1930, she signed the women’s pro-amnesty manifesto.
She also dedicated herself to giving poetry recitals at various institutions, as well as translating, especially from French, and proofreading Catalan texts.
In 1948, she received an accessit, a secondary award, for the Viola d’Or at the Floral Games held in Paris, with the poem A la Verge de Montserrat, according to the awards page of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana.
The Civil War interrupted her public career, and her publishing activity declined considerably during the post-war period, although she continued writing into old age. She published poems in Les cinc branques (1975) and 31 poetes d’avui (1978). The biography published by the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana notes that part of her work remains unpublished.
In November 2009, the book “Antologia de poemes – Maria Perpinyà” (Anthology of Poems – Maria Perpinyà) was published as part of the Josep Pla collection by the Girona Provincial Council.
Maria Perpinyà and the renewal of the Procession texts
Maria Perpinyà’s contribution to the Procession went beyond correcting its language. Jordi Roca’s study opening the 2011 edition of La processó de Verges. Text de l’obra reveals literary work combining the adaptation of old verses, the selection of passages and the writing of new ones. Her contribution belongs to the transformations of the 1950s, when her brother Carles Perpinyà directed the reorganisation of the Procession’s staging.
Maria worked with an earlier textual tradition associated with the Passion works of Friar Antoni de Sant Jeroni. She therefore did not write the entire text performed in Verges from scratch. Nor did she simply render it in more accessible language: she worked on how the action was told and the scenes connected, seeking verses that could be spoken and understood before an audience.
Adapting, selecting and writing
Comparing the texts shows that Maria worked on various passages of the performance, adapting earlier material and, in some cases, contributing wording of her own. The Virgin Mary’s lament at the end of the performance is one of the original contributions that the study attributes to her.
Her work also included selecting texts by other authors. In the Pilate scene she incorporated and adapted passages by Damas Calvet. This detail helps us understand the Procession as a work formed from different contributions: recognising Maria’s work requires distinguishing what she wrote, adapted and selected.
A writer remembered in Verges
Oral memory offers a closer perspective. In Maria Ruart i Ribas’s interview for the Memòria Viva La Processó project, her relationship with Maria Perpinyà includes the memory of receiving help with reading Catalan as a child. Josep Maria Llach i Grande also distinguishes Carles’s work on staging from Maria’s poetic contribution in his testimony.
These memories bring us closer to the person and her surroundings. Read alongside the books, they place her contribution to the performance in the Square within a life devoted to language and literature.
To explore this history further, see the versions and authorship of the Procession texts.
Sources for the expanded account
Jordi Roca, introductory study in La processó de Verges. Text de l’obra (Diputació de Girona, 2011), especially pp. 10–20 and the note on adaptations. Interviews with Maria Ruart i Ribas and Josep Maria Llach i Grande in the Memòria Viva La Processó project, analysed as part of this research.
Màriam Serrà, Verges i la processó que no es veu (El Mèdol, 1998), p. 43: reading with music and television broadcast in 1977. Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana: biography, awards and works. Verges Town Council, ‘Plaça de Maria Perpinyà’: organisations to which she belonged.
125th anniversary of Maria Perpinyà’s birth
In 2026, to mark the 125th anniversary of her birth, Verges organised a number of initiatives to remember the life and work of Maria Perpinyà. Among them, the programme for Catalonia’s National Day on 11 September included readings from several of her texts accompanied by music.
LaProcessodeVerges.com has also joined the commemoration with a special article exploring her life, her connection with Verges and the mark she left on the Verges Procession: Verges marks the 125th anniversary of Maria Perpinyà’s birth.
