Blood Libel Myth
This cathedral contains a series of paintings built into the church's wooden panelling depicting the Martyrologium Romanum. The third painting depicts a scene which it is claimed "...depicts ritual murders committed in Sandomierz by Jews on Christian children. The inscription above the painting reads filius apothecary ab infidelibus judaeis sandomiriensibus occisus (son of an apothecary, by infidel Sandomierz Jews killed)
The church (St Paul's) contains a second series of paintings including one in the chancel depicting the torment of Jerzy Krassowski who was supposedly strangled by Jews.
Discussion on these pictures has taken place with the Polish Jewish Community. "The Polish Council of Christians and Jews has offered to finance a plaque with explanations of the blood libel and information about the official statements by various Popes rejecting the accusation". This proposal has not been accepted and to date the pictures remain in the Cathedral and Church without plaque explaining or contradicting the myths portrayed.
Read more about this topic: Sandomierz, Sandomierz Cathedral and St Paul's Church
Famous quotes containing the words blood, libel and/or myth:
“The blood is moral: the blood is anti-slavery: it runs cold in the veins: the stomach rises with disgust, and curses slavery.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Middle-aged adolescents are a libel on the real thing.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“That, of course, was the thing about the fifties with all their patina of familial bliss: A lot of the memories were not happy, not mine, not my friends’. That’s probably why the myth so endures, because of the dissonance in our lives between what actually went on at home and what went on up there on those TV screens where we were allegedly seeing ourselves reflected back.”
—Anne Taylor Fleming (20th century)