Holy Child of La Guardia - Legend

Legend

During the sixteenth century there arose a legend according to which the death of the Holy Child was similar to that of Jesus Christ, even emphasising similarities between the topography of the Toledan town where the events allegedly occurred (La Guardia) and of Jerusalem where Jesus died .

In 1569 the graduate Sancho Busto de Villegas, a member of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition and governor of the Archbishopric of Toledo (afterwards Bishop of Avila) wrote, based on the trial documents, which were stored in the Valladolid court archives, Relación autorizada del martirio del Santo Inocente (Authorized Account of the Martyrdom of Saint Innocent), which was deposited in the municipal archives of La Guardia town hall. In 1583, Friar Rodrigo de Yepes published La Historia de la muerte y glorioso martirio del santo inocente que llaman de Laguardia (The History of the Death and Glorious Martyrdom of the Holy Innocent said to be from from La Guardia). In 1720 appeared another hagiography in Madrid, La Historia del Inocente Trinity el Santo Niño de la Guardia (The History of the Trinitarian Innocent, the Holy Child of La Guardia), the work of Diego Martinez Abad, and in 1785, the village priest of La Guardia, Martín Martínez Moreno, published his Historia del martirio del Santo Niño de la Guardia (History of the Martyrdom of the Holy Child of La Guardia).

The legend constructed on these successive contributions relates that some converts, after attending an Auto de Fe in Toledo, planned revenge on the inquisitors by arts of sorcery. For the spell they needed a consecrated Host and the heart of an innocent child. Alonso Franco and Juan Franco kidnapped the boy next to la Puerta del Perdón (the door of Forgiveness) in Toledo Cathedral and took him to La Guardia. There on Good Friday they held a mock trial. The boy, in the legend is sometimes called Juan and at others, Cristóbal and is said to be the son of Alonso de Pasamonte and Juana la Guindero (even though no body was ever found). He was alleged to have been scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified at the mock trial, in imitation of Jesus Christ. The heart, needed for the spell, was torn out. At the exact time of the child's death, his mother, who was blind, miraculously regained her sight. After burying the body, the murderers stole a consecrated Host. Benito García set out for Zamora, carrying the Host and the heart to seek the help of other co-religionists to perform his spell, but was stopped in Ávila because of the brilliant light that issued from the consecrated Host the convert had hidden between the pages of a prayer-book. Thanks to his confession, the other participants in the crime were discovered. After the alleged death of the Holy Child, several miraculous healings were attributed to him.

The consecrated Host is kept in the Dominican monastery of St. Thomas in Ávila. The heart was said to have miraculously disappeared, like the child's body, and it was believed that like Jesus Christ he had been resurrected.