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

Cecilia Giménez, a resident of the town of Borja in northern Spain, rose to prominence thirteen years ago after she undertook to repaint a century-old painting titled Ecce Homo housed within her local church.

Giménez's handiwork spread across the internet and was dubbed "Monkey Christ", largely due to the altered likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a furry primate.

Local Confirmation and Homage

The nonagenarian's death was announced by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he acknowledged her as a "passionate enthusiast of painting from a young age".

"Descansa en paz Cecilia, we will always remember you," the mayor posted.

Arilla further referenced Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 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 Now-Infamous Intervention

The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) painted by nineteenth-century painter Elias Garcia Martinez had resided for over a hundred years in the Santuario de la Misericordia close to Zaragoza.

In 2012, Giménez, who was 81 years old, explained that church members had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had received permission from the local priest to proceed.

She added at the time that anybody who entered the Church would have seen she was applying paint to the existing image.

A Surprising Economic Lifeline

The impact of the restoration spawned the "Ecce Mono" meme and transformed the previously sleepy town of Borja rapidly turn into a significant visitor attraction.

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

Today, local authorities estimate that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja every year to view the famous portrait, which is now protected by a pane of glass.

Later Life and Local Support

After recovering from the initial backlash, with support from the townspeople and others around the world, Giménez went on to hold an art exhibition showcasing twenty-eight of her personal works.

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

In the end, what began as a sincere but unsuccessful act of restoration created an unlikely piece of pop culture and brought unprecedented attention and resources to a humble Spanish town.