Andreas Oxner

Anderl (Andreas) Oxner von Rinn, also known as Andreas Oxner, (c. 1459 – July 12, 1462) was a folk saint of the Roman Catholic Church. According to a blood libel accusation, the three-year-old boy was killed by foreign Jews in the village of Rinn (Northern Tyrol, currently part of Austria).

Initial accusations

In 1475, in the wake of the blood libel of Simon of Trent, the bones of a child were brought to the parish church of Rinn. The ritual murder accusation did not arise until after 1620, by the pen of Hyppolyte Guarinoni, a doctor who, at that time, was attached to a lay sisterhood (beguinage) of noblewomen in Hall. Having probably heard of the murder through rumors, in 1642 he wrote a book on the crime: Triumph Cron Marter Vnd Grabschrift des Heilig Unschuldigen Kindts (translated roughly as "Martyrdoms Triumph Crown and Epitaph of the Holy Innocent Child"). The alleged scene of the crime, Judenstein bei Rinn, became a place of pilgrimage and locus of antisemitism in the Catholic Church.

Veneration

In 1753, Pope Benedict XIV permitted the veneration of Anderl, beatifying him in 1755.[1] This facilitated the spread of the antisemitic legend through popular theatrical performances, which were based on the writings of Guarinoni and were performed until 1954. The Brothers Grimm revived the tale in 1816 when they published the first volume of their German legends. In 1893, a book appeared, Four Tyrolian Child Victims of Hassidic Fanaticism by Viennese priest Josef Deckert, and it gave new life to the legend and changed it into a format usable for a modern wave of antisemitism.

The Feast of Anderl von Rinn was struck off the religious calendar in 1953 by the Bishop of Innsbruck, Paul Rusch.

Current status

In 1985, the bones of the martyr were removed from the parish church and in 1994 the cult of the "Child of Judenstein" was officially banned by Bishop Reinhold Stecher. Despite this, a pilgrimage to Judenstein Rinn almost always takes place each year on the Sunday following July 12, held in a private capacity by right-wing extremists, locals, and regional and Catholic fundamentalists. Contrary to the orders of the Catholic Church, and also contrary to the scientific evidence regarding this legend, isolated representatives of the Catholic Church have spoken in favour of the observance of the feast and feel that ritual murder has not been proven to be fictional. Supporters of the observance include Gottfried Melzer, co-chaplain of the pilgrimage, who has been suspens a divinis and sentenced in Austria in 1998 for incitement to racial hatred; Robert Prantner, theologian and member of the Engelwerk Association; and Kurt Krenn, former Bishop of St. Pölten and president of the League of Prayer of the Emperor Charles for Peace among Peoples.

See also

See also the articles of other children whose deaths in medieval times gave rise to the persecution of the Jews:

Bibliography (in German)

References

  1. ↑ "Beatus Andreas - Pope Benedict XIV". Retrieved 2013-04-24.

External links