African popular religious expressions that connected Africa, Europe, and the Americas. A late twentieth century movement to gain national recognition of Afro-Peruvian cultural contributions in Cañete Province focused on Santa Efigenia, which included a statue and an eighteenth century wall-sized baroque painting of her by Peruvian artist Cristóbal Lozano. These artistic representations located in a private chapel on the hacienda La Quebrada in San Luis de Cañete were presented as legitimate artifacts of Santa Efigenia’s status as a folk or popular saint central to their construction of an Afro-Peruvian black identity and culture of devotion. On August 20, 1994 Sabino Cañas, an Afro-Peruvian community leader, organized a small group of followers from the surrounding villages of Cañete and Chincha to establish the Santa Efigenia Association, and named her as Patroness of National Black Art, even as they struggled to craft a coherent historical narrative of Santa Efigenia’s origins. According to the Association’s popular history, Santa Efígenia has been at the hacienda of La Quebrada since approximately 1741. An annual celebration of Santa Efígenia is held on September 21 each year, with processions made in homage to Santa Ifigenia in the district of San Luis de Canete. The Association produces a program flyer that introduces a brief history of the patron saint and focuses on her diffusion and popularity in Brazil, Cuba, and Peru. The festival has grown in popularity as the Afro-Peruvian community of artists, musicians, writers, sports figures, and admirers have converged on Cañete each September in growing numbers. France In honor of Saint Ephigenia, a virgin-martyr of 1794 had taken her name. A professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict that was martyred during the French Revolution in 1794 was known as "Sister Iphigénie of Saint Matthew". Her name was Blessed Marie-Gabrielle-Françoise-Suzanne de Gaillard de Lavaldène (1761–1794), also known as "Francesca Maria Susanna", "Sister Iphigénie of Saint Matthew" or "Ifigenia di San Matteo de Gaillard de la Valdène", and she was one of the Martyrs of Orange who was guillotined on 7 July 1794 in Orange, Vaucluse, France. She was beatified 10 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI and she is commemorated on July 7. Churches Igreja de Santa Efigênia dos Pretos, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil, founded in 1785. According to tradition, the church of St. Ephigenia in Vila Rica was built largely from the proceeds of gold dust washed out of their hair by devout