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:
“and the oxen near
The worn foundations of their resting-place,
The holy manger where their bed is corn
And holly torn for Christmas. If they die,
As Jesus, in the harness, who will mourn?
Lamb of the shepherds, Child, how still you lie.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.”
—United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.