Holy Child of La Guardia

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El Santo Niño de La Guardia or the Holy Infant of La Guardia was the alleged victim of a ritual murder by Jews in the central Spanish province of Toledo (Castile-La Mancha) in 1491. On November 16, an auto de fe held outside of Ávila concluded the case with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects that confessed to the crime under torture. Among the executed were Benito Garcia, the converso who initially confessed to the murder. [1] Like Pedro de Arbués he 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.[2]

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Reston, James: "Dogs of Gods: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the defeat of the Moors", page 207. Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 0-385-50848-4
  2. ^ Simon Whitechapel, Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (Creation Books, 2003). ISBN 1-84068-105-5
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