Simon of Thirty

Simon of Thirty (? - about on March 21st, 1475), of the town of Thirty was a boy, (today in Italy). Its disappearance would be the fact of the chiefs of the Jewish community of the city, according to consents torn off under the Torture.

Context

The disappearance of Simon Unverdorben, also known under the name of Siméon, Simonin or Simonet, started the first unfounded charge of ritual crime. These charges multiplied through Europe during nearly five centuries. Little time before the disappearance of the child, Bernardin de Feltre, itinerant preacher franciscain, had pronounced to Thirty a series of sermons where he said evil of the local Jewish community.

When Simon disappeared in the neighborhoods from Easter 1475, his/her father thought that it had been removed and assassinated by the Jews. According to him, they had emptied the child of its blood to use it in the cooking of their matzot of Easter, and for the ritual occult ones to which they were delivered secretly.

Reaction to the events

The chiefs of the Jewish community were stopped and seventeen acknowledged under torture. Fifteen of them, including Samuel, the chief of the community, were condemned to died and perished on the Bûcher. During this time Simon became an object of veneration for the local Catholic church. More than one hundred miracles were directly allotted to the “small Simon saint” in the year which followed its disappearance.

Its worship was propagated through Italy and Germany and was confirmed (what is equivalent to a beatification) in 1588 by the pope Sixth-Quint, who proclaimed it Martyr and patron saint of the removed and tortured victims. The same year, Sixte V the canonized and approved that a special Messe in the honor of the “small Simon” was known as in the Diocèse of Thirty.

Modern prohibition of the worship

In 1965, at the beginning of the Concile Vatican II, the Church started with réenquêter on this history, the files of the lawsuit were reopened. After having recognized the business like fraudulent, the worship of Simon saint was abolished by the pope Paul VI and the furnace bridge that one had raised to him was demolished. It was withdrawn calendar and it was defended to venerate it in the future. This prohibition was not respected by all.

In 2001 the local authorities of the autonomous Province of Thirty organized a prayer common of the catholics and Jews to the site of the old Jewish synagog of Palazzo Salvadori, as a sign of reconciliation between the city and the Jewish community.

Although the historians agree that it is extremely doubtful that Simon was assassinated by the Jews, there remain some people to regard the murder as a fact. As for the real cause of the disappearance of Simon, it remains a mystery.

Toaff business

In February 2007, the professor and enquiring Israeli Ariel Toaff published a book whose title is Pasque di sangue: Ebrei d' Europa E omicidi rituali (bloody Easter: Jews of Europe and murders ritual). In this book, it advances that dried blood was used at the time with medical ends, and that one going itinerant Jew coming from Venice, implied in the lawsuit, made trade of it. Its declarations caused an outcry in Israel and Italy.

The counterparts of Toaff showed it to have made many errors in its research and to grant credit to documents of the Inquisition obtained under torture or falsified. They reflect the fact also ahead that a Jew, which had served some time like witness for the prosecution, had handled the judge with his knowledge. Ariel Toaff withdrew its book commercial in order to be able to work over again the passages which were reproached to him.

Sources

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