Host desecration
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Host desecration is an anti-semitic myth similar to the blood libel myth.
It started in late 13th century England and France (a century after Christians started making blood libel accusations against Jews), where it was claimed that Jews would steal consecrated host wafers and torture them. According to the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, a consecrated host wafer becomes the flesh of Jesus, so it was believed that Jews would steal and torture these wafers to reenact the crucifixion of Christ.
This myth portrayed Jews in an even worse light than the blood libels: rather than killing a mere human, they tortured what was believed to be the Messiah, a part of God Himself. However, modern objections to the myth reason that since Jews do not believe in either Jesus or transubstantiation, the host wafer would just be an ordinary wafer to them, so why would they go to the trouble of stealing it and stabbing it with a knife?
In some variants of the myth, the stabbed wafer bled, inducing religious conversion in the Jew. Later this variant changed to make the Jew look even worse: rather than converting in the face of this miracle, the Jew buried the wafer in an attempt to hide it; where the wafer was buried, a new spring burst forth from the ground. Regardless of the variation, many Jews were killed because of this myth until it started to wane with the advent of Protestantism.
Host desecration forms part of myths about devil worship, particularly the black mass, both in medieval times and later in allegations of satanic ritual abuse.
In modern times, any actual desecration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic is an offense for which a Catholic would suffer automatic excommunication.
References
- Robert S. Wistrich Antisemitism; The Longest Hatred, Methuen London
- John Weiss Ideology of Death, Ivan R. Dee, ISBN 1-56663-088-6de:Hostienfrevel