Doña Gaietana Alberta Giménez Adrover was a teacher, who was appointed in 1870 as director of the Colegio de la Pureza de María in Palma de Mallorca, a school founded in 1809 by the Bishop of the Diocese, Don Bernardo Nadal.

When Doña Alberta was appointed as head of the Colegio, it had been a boys only school, as were all schools in Mallorca at that time. However, she managed to transform the school by emphasizing the importance of giving a solid education to girls as well, just as you would to boys. Thanks to Madre Alberta, girls in Mallorca were now offered a proper school education for the first time ever. Doña Alberta held the position as the school’s director until 1916, six years before she died.

To this day, the Colegio de la Pureza de María in Palma continues as a very highly thought of school. Thousands of Mallorcan families send their children there, both girls and boys, for the high level of academic skills that are taught, as do a few hundred foreign families as well, including Japanese, Arab and many others.

The exceptional Madre Alberta had long since passed away, when some 30 years ago, a private University was also founded by the Colegio de la Pureza de María, on the outskirts of Palma, called Centre Universitari Alberta Giménez. Young ladies and young men can study languages there, journalism or audiovisual communication. How about that?

Pope John Paul II declared Gaietana Alberta Giménez Adrover an heroic woman. I declare her an exceptional woman, for being way ahead of her time. Well done, Madre Alberta (whose mother, by the way, was from Felanitx).

The photo was chosen from my archive. It was taken at the old Colegio de la Pureza de María in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain, now partly accessible as a museum. The date: May 30th, 2005. The time was 16:09:26.