The Holy Child of La Guardia (Spanish: El Santo Niño de La Guardia) (died 1491) was the purported victim of a ritual murder by the Jews in the town of La Guardia in the central Spanish province of Toledo (Castile–La Mancha). On November 16, 1491 an auto-da-fé held outside of Ávila concluded the case with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects who confessed to the crime under torture. Among the executed were Benito Garcia, the converso who initially confessed to the murder. However, no body was ever found, and due to contradictory confessions, the court had trouble coherently depicting how events took place.
Like Pedro de Arbués, the Holy Infant was quickly made into a saint by popular acclaim, and his death greatly assisted the Spanish Inquisition and its Inquisitor General, Tomás de Torquemada, in their campaign against heresy and crypto-Judaism. The cult of the Holy Infant is still celebrated in La Guardia. Significantly, he became known in the legend as Christopher (Cristóbal) meaning Christ-bearer.
Read more about Holy Child Of La Guardia: Background, Judicial Process, Legend, In Art and Literature, Impact
Famous quotes containing the words holy and/or child:
“Insurrection:... insurrection as soon as circumstances allow: insurrection, strenuous, ubiquitous: the insurrection of the masses: the holy war of the oppressed: the republic to make republicans: the people in action to initiate progress. Let the insurrection announce with its awful voice the decrees of God: let it clear and level the ground on which its own immortal structure shall be raised. Let it, like the Nile, flood all the country that it is destined to make fertile.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“How a child is taught affects his image of himself, which in turn, influences what he will dare and care to try to learn. The interdependence of the two is inescapable.”
—Barbara Biber (20th century)