Reporting of Federici Studies Center
Il 24 March the Church celebrated San Simonino di Trento: we remember him with the review of a book relating to the martyrdom he suffered “cruelly slaughtered by the Jews" (Roman Martyrology) In the 1475.
Of don Ugolino Giugni
Much has been written, in the past, on Blessed Simonino da Trento and still today, despite the "suppression" of his cult he is at the center of scholarly interest. In the 2007 The book “Bloody Easter” by Ariel Toaff caused quite a stir, son of the great rabbi of Rome Elio, in which the author scientifically and historically addressed the issue of "blood culture" in Jewish popular traditions and beliefs in the Middle Ages. This “blood accusation”, according to Toaff, emerges precisely from the minutes of the trials for the charge of "ritual murder" (of which precisely that of Trento 1475 concerning the blessed Simonino is one of the most famous), against the Ashkenazi Jews of Trentino.
What Toaff writes to explain his research method is very interesting, as he certainly cannot be accused of being biased and anti-Semitic: «I would like to point out that in my research I mainly intended to investigate the role occupied by the so-called "blood culture" in the German-speaking Jewish world, as in the surrounding society. A multipurpose role, therapeutic, magical, superstitious, alchemical, which was independent of the severe, biblical and rabbinic prohibition on the consumption of blood. Basically, I set out to check how, also on this point, the practice, shaped by external influences, had changed the law and what the consequences would have been, unexpected or predictable, in the context of the open and harsh confrontation with the Christian communities.
In other words, I intended to rebuild, giving them life and depth back, the popular beliefs of medieval Ashkenazi Judaism, an underground world, imbued with superstition and magic and animated by visceral anti-Christian feelings. A world that, more or less intentionally, has been covered by oblivion, at least until recently. The Trento trial for Simonino's infanticide (1475) and its extensive documentation provided me with the opportunity to examine the defendants' confessions in detail. I then wondered if in them, even taking into account that they had been extorted through torture [common method for all processes, even civilian ones... at that time, n.d.r.] elements attributable to mentality could be found, to the particular traditions and rites of those Jews as regards both daily life and the celebration of holidays, and especially Easter. On the basis of significant evidence and cross-checking with Jewish sources, I have come to the conclusion that there are solid elements to hypothesize that a magical and symbolic use of blood, dried and reduced to powder, had become over time, despite the opposition of the rabbis, an integral part of particular rites and liturgies within the celebration of Jewish Easter.
The image emerged from relevant Jewish documentation, recently published by Israel Yuval, finds confirmation in the picture that the Trent defendants paint on the subject, clearly indicating that it characterized Ashkenazi extremist groups in particular. These, who were part of a German Jewry recovering from the traumas of the Crusades, from massacres and forced baptisms, during the Easter dinner they expressed their resolute aversion to Christianity in the so-called "ritual of curses". According to my hypothesis, which I believe is supported by significant evidence, these sacralized anathemas acquired a terrible magical value when symbolically a few grains of powdered Christian blood were dissolved in wine, turning it into the blood of Edom, Christianity, the irreducible persecutor to whom the curses were addressed" (1).
Toaff points out that the murdered child is identified, movingly for a Christian, with our Lord Jesus Christ himself: «“You are crucified and pierced like Jesus the hanged man, in ignominy and shame like Jesus". For the participants in the rite it seems that the Christian infant had lost his identity (if he had ever possessed it in their eyes) and was transformed into Jesus "crucified and hung"" (2). What Toaff stated here seems to deny that "obvious absolute lack of evidence" that Gemma Volli invoked in 1963, at the dawn of the new times of the Second Vatican Council, in the sixteen-page booklet (3) which she wrote to ask for the review of the Trentino trials and the suppression of the cult of Simonino.
The story is known, the requested revision arrived with the Council, and thanks to an insignificant article by W. P. Open up. (4), In the 1965 the bishop of Trento Gottardi was diligent in suppressing the cult of Simonino and hiding his relics to erase him forever, if this was possible, memory.
This new book aims to make known the true story of Simonino as Holy Mother Church taught and believed it before the "new times of Vatican II", and wants to remind Catholics what seems to us to be a fundamental point of the question, and which we have always tried to overshadow; that is, the fact that in the case of the cult of San Simonino the very authority and credibility of the Church is at stake. In fact, she is infallible in the canonization of her saints, therefore it is not possible that he approves a cult that would later prove to be false and needs to be suppressed.
Of course the beatification, as it is not a definitive act and limited to a local cult which does not oblige the entire Church, it is not yet infallible; but it is the common opinion of theologians that it is at least foolhardy to maintain that there could be error in such a judgment. Furthermore, in our case we must consider the fact that in 1584 the name of Simonino was included in the Roman martyrology by Pope Gregory XIII, with the title of Saint and that in 1588 Pope Sixtus V granted the Mass and Office of Blessed Simonino for the diocese of Trento. Following with the Bull Beatus Andreas del 22 February 1755 Pope Benedict XIV, he again recognized the cult paid to Saint Simonino, stating that "he was cruelly put to death out of hatred for the faith", cult confirmed by countless miracles.
Pope Lambertini's bull (Benedict XIV) has a particular value, as it thoroughly examines the closely related cases of the martyrdom of Andrew of Rinn and Simon of Trent, and Lambertini's supreme authority in matters of the canonization of Saints is known to all. It should be noted that the people of Trento have always venerated their small patron saint with a public and solemn cult until 1965. If we place ourselves in this Catholic perspective, there is no room, in the question of the cult of Simonino, for the so-called "anti-Semitism" with which, in an instrumental way, it is intended to accuse Catholics who venerate San Simonino.
The book is divided into two parts so that the reader can get a precise idea of the history and state of the cult of Simonino before and after the Council. The first part is the anastatic reprint of a book from the 1930s which tells the story of the Trentino child in quite detail, his martyrdom and the trials that followed. The author (Cives in Latin meaning citizen) it is based above all on the work of the Divine (5) parish priest of S. Peter at the beginning of the century, church where the relics of the blessed were kept until the suppression of the cult.
In the second part (appendix) edited by the "San Simonino Committee", a series of important documents are collected as evidence of the cult that the Church has paid to the little blessed for centuries. The texts of the liturgy taken from the Missal are present, from the Breviary and Martyrology, the documents of the Magisterium, and also the decree suppressing the cult of Bishop Gottardi. The images are very interesting, as evidence of the cult, which are found in many churches in Trentino and Val Camonica (BS) as well as some photos of the processions in the city of Trento.
Civilians, The true story of Blessed Simonino da Trento, Innocent and Martyr and of his cult, San Simonino Committee, Trento 2013, 100 pag. euro 12,00.
Note
1) Ariel Toaff, Easter of blood. European Jews and ritual murders, The Mill Bologna 2007, Afterword, pages. 364-365.
2) Ariel Toaff, Blood Easter..., op.cit., p. 196)
3) Gemma Volli, The “Tridentine trials” and the cult of Blessed Simone da Trento, The new Italy, Firenze 1963. Significant of the new times, This is what is written in the note at the end of the book: «this writing is published after Cardinal Bea, il 19 November, gave a speech at the Council which overturns the still traditional attitude of the Church towards the Jews and which, together with the discussion on freedom of religion, it seems to us to be a decisive step for the teaching of the Church in the modern era. This attitude of the Church should also find immediate repercussions even in clear cases of cults and glorifications that have nothing to do with the truth and the spirit of the new times as is precisely the case covered by this article, a case that demonstrates how necessary the new position of the Church is and how stubborn the medieval ways of understanding Christianity are (n.d.r.)» (pag. 16).
4) W. P. Open up. Blessed Simonino in the "acts" of the Trento trial against the Jews, Publishing typography themes, Trento 1965.
5) Mons. Giuseppe Divina, The Blessed Simone da Trento, Tip. Craftsmen D. F. D. M. – Trento, 1902.
In fact this suppression of Blessed Simonino, e’ another servile prostration to the new powerful rulers of the Vat2 council and of the new church that arose after it. Bishop Gottardi, well known in the diocese of Trento, like a politician, not as a pastor, he was only waiting to suppress a cult that was annoying Jewish friendships.