Host desecration is a form of sacrilege in
Christian denominations that follow the doctrine
of real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
It involves the mistreatment or malicious
use of a consecrated host—the sacred bread
used in the Eucharistic service of the Divine
Liturgy or Mass.
It is forbidden by the Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox Churches, as well as in certain Protestant
traditions (including Anglicanism, Lutheranism,
and Methodism).
In Catholicism, where the host is held to
have been transubstantiated into the body
of Jesus Christ, host desecration is among
the gravest of sins.
Intentional host desecration is not only a
mortal sin but also incurs the penalty of
excommunication latae sententiae.
Throughout history, a number of groups have
been accused of desecrating the Eucharist,
often with grave consequences due to the spiritual
importance of the consecrated host.
== Overview ==
Accusations against Jews were a common reason
given for massacres and expulsions throughout
the Middle Ages in Europe.
Similar accusations were made in witchcraft
trials; witch-hunter's guides such as the
Malleus Maleficarum refer to hosts as being
objects of desecration by witches.
It is part of many descriptions of the Black
Mass, both in ostensibly historical works
and in fiction.
== Background ==
In Christianity, within the Anglican Church,
Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church,
Lutheran Church, Methodist Church, and Oriental
Orthodox Church, during the celebration of
the Eucharist, the offerings of bread and
wine are changed or added to make the body
and blood of Jesus by the action of God.
The change effects the Real presence of Christ
in the Eucharist, a doctrine which has been
believed from the earliest days of the Church.During
the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic theology offered
the concept of transubstantiation to explain
this change of substance which was believed
to be actual and not merely symbolic.
Transubstantiation, defined as a dogma at
the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, holds
that the substances of the offerings are literally
transformed, while the appearance of bread
and wine remain.
Many Christians believe Jesus to be "true
God and true man."
In the Catholic Church, therefore, his "body,
blood, soul and divinity" in the form of the
consecrated host are adored.
Theft, sale, or use of the host for a profane
purpose is considered a grave sin and sacrilege,
which incurs the penalty of excommunication,
which is imposed automatically in the Latin
Rite (See Code of Canon Law, Latin Rite Code
canon 1367, or Eastern Rite Code canon 1442.)
Some denominations, especially Lutherans,
have similar beliefs regarding the Eucharist
and the Real Presence, though they reject
the Roman Catholic concept of transubstantiation,
preferring instead, the doctrine of the sacramental
union, in which "the body and blood of Christ
are so truly united to the bread and wine
of the Holy Communion that the two may be
identified.
They are at the same time body and blood,
bread and wine...in this sacrament the Lutheran
Christian receives the very body and blood
of Christ precisely for the strengthening
of the union of faith."
Both the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the
Oriental Orthodox Churches, such as the Coptic
Church, insist "on the reality of the change
from bread and wine into the body and the
blood of Christ at the consecration of the
elements", although they have "never attempted
to explain the manner of the change", thus
rejecting philosophical terms to describe
it.
The Methodist Church similarly holds that
Christ is truly present in the Eucharist "through
the elements of bread and wine", but maintains
that how He is present is a Holy Mystery.
Until the 19th century Oxford Movement reintroduced
the classic doctrine of the Real Presence
Anglicanism favored Receptionism' which is
a theological doctrine according to which,
while the bread and wine in the Eucharist
continue to exist unchanged after consecration,
the faithful communicant receives together
with them the body and blood of Christ.
The term itself seems not to have appeared
before 1867.
A more accurate description of the classic
Anglican attitude is Real Receptionism.
There is an outer reality which is bread and
wine and an inner which is the Body and Blood
of Christ in a sacramental manner.
Whatever the doctrine selected, among Anglicans
the consecrated bread and hosts are reserved
and treated with great reverence.
Host desecration has been associated with
groups identified as inimical to Christianity.
It is a common belief that desecration of
the host is part of Satanic practice, especially
the Black Mass.
LaVeyan Satanists do not typically perform
Black Mass as a regular ritual, though "Le
Messe Noir" from Anton LaVey's work The Satanic
Rituals does include some elements.
Since the publication of a document called
Memoriale Domini in 1969, the Apolistic See
of the Catholic Church has allowed certain
countries to allow communicants to receive
the Host in the hand, rather than directly
onto the tongue, reviving an "ancient custom".
Communion in the hand is now widespread in
many parts of the world.
The practice means that access to consecrated
Hosts is easier than in the past, since the
person receiving it in the hand may pretend
to place it in their mouth for consumption.
However, recent statements and practices of
Pope Benedict XVI have caused a recent shift
in Catholic practice (notably at Papal Masses
and amongst more traditional-minded Catholics)
of receiving on the tongue while kneeling,
which is also an ancient practice.
(This practice was still performed commonly
and consistently, even as recently as the
early 1970s in America, and is still received
orally in many churches and countries presently.
Receiving on the tongue is still the official
norm of the Catholic Church, while receiving
in the hand [via the Memoriale Domini indult]
is, in English-speaking countries, the practical
norm.)
== Medieval accusations against Jews ==
Accusations of host desecration (German Hostienschändung)
leveled against Jews were a common pretext
for massacres and expulsions throughout the
Middle Ages in Europe.
The libel of "Jewish deicide": that the Jewish
people were responsible for the killing of
Jesus, whom Christians regard as God become
man, was a generally accepted Christian belief.
It was spuriously claimed that Jews stole
hosts (objects to which they attached no significance,
religious or otherwise), and further spuriously
claimed that they abused these hosts to re-enact
the crucifixion of Jesus by stabbing or burning
them.
It has been asserted by modern scholars, such
as the Catholic priest Gavin Langmuir, that
these accusations against Jews represented
profound doubt about the truth of Christianity.
Catholics were being told, in the transubstantiation
doctrine, that they, by consuming the host,
were eating human flesh and drinking human
blood.
To dispel their doubts about transubstantiation,
Christians projected a system of belief onto
Jews that was completely alien to Judaism
and Jewish law where strict dietary laws forbid
the consumption of blood; even when consuming
kosher animals.
Jews in the Middle Ages were frequently victims
of similar accusations, considered more serious
desecration of other revered items, such as
relics or images of Jesus and the saints.
The accusations were often supported only
by the testimony of the accuser, who may potentially
bear a prejudice against the accused Jew or
the Jewish people.
Despite this, some alleged perpetrators were
tried and found guilty, on little evidence
or through torture.The penalties for Jews
accused of defiling hosts were severe.
Many Jews, after accusations and torture,
"confessed" to abusing hosts, and the accused
Jews were condemned and burned, sometimes
with all the other Jews in the community,
as happened in Beelitz in 1247, in Prague
in 1389, and in many German cities, according
to Ocker's writings in the Harvard Theological
Review.
According to William Nichol in Christian Antisemitism,
"over 100 instances of the charge have been
recorded, in many cases leading to massacres."
As mentioned above, the first recorded accusation
was made in 1247 at Beelitz, south of Potsdam.
Tradition records that as a consequence the
Jews of Beelitz were burned on a hill before
the Mill Gate, which was subsequently, and
until 1945, called the Judenberg, although
there is no contemporary evidence for the
burnings in documents of the 13th Century.
Another famous case that took place in 1290,
in Paris, was commemorated in the Church of
the Rue des Billettes and in a local confraternity.
The case of 1337, at Deggendorf, celebrated
locally as part of the "Deggendorfer Gnad"
until 1992, led to a series of massacres across
the region.
In 1370 in Brussels the charge of host desecration,
long celebrated in a special fest and depicted
in artistic relics in the Church of St. Gudule,
led to the burning of twenty Jews and expulsion
in the Brussels massacre.
In 1510, at Knoblauch in Havelland 38 Jews
were executed and more expelled from Brandenburg.
An alleged host desecration in 1410, at Segovia,
was said to have brought about an earthquake;
as a result, leading Jews in the city were
executed and the local synagogue was seized
and re-dedicated as the convent and Church
of Corpus Christi.Similar accusations, resulting
in extensive persecution of Jews, were brought
forward in 1294, at Laa, Austria; 1298, at
Röttingen, near Würzburg, and at Korneuburg,
near Vienna; 1299, at Ratisbon; 1306, at St.
Pölten; 1330, at Güstrow; 1338, at Pulkau;
1388, at Prague; 1401, at Glogau; 1420, at
Ems; 1453, at Breslau; 1478, at Passau; 1492,
at Sternberg, in Mecklenburg; 1514, at Mittelberg,
in Alsace; 1556, at Sochaczew, in Poland.
The last Jew burned for stealing a host died
in 1631, according to Jacques Basnage, quoting
from Manasseh b.
Israel.
In some cases host desecration legends emerged
without actual accusations, as was the case
of the host desecration legend of Poznan (Posen).
The accusation of host desecration gradually
ceased after the Reformation when first Martin
Luther in 1523 and then Sigismund August of
Poland in 1558 were among those who repudiated
the accusation.
However, sporadic instances of host desecration
libel occurred even in the 18th and 19th century.
In 1761 in Nancy, several Jews from Alsace
were executed on a charge of host desecration.
The last recorded accusation was brought up
in Berlad, Romania, in 1836.
== 2008 controversy in the US ==
In his July 8 blog entry, University of Minnesota
Morris biology professor Paul Zachary Myers
criticized the reaction to a University of
Central Florida student's perceived act of
host desecration (the student had attempted
to bring the host to a friend who was curious
about communion).
Myers described the level of harassment against
the student and expressed his intent to desecrate
the wafer, which Catholics consider a mortal
sin.Myers expressed outrage that Fox News
appeared to be inciting viewers to cause further
problems for the student, and ridiculed reports
that armed guards would attend the next Mass.
Myers suggested that if any of his readers
could acquire some consecrated Eucharistic
hosts for him, he would treat the wafers "with
profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse,
all photographed and presented here on the
web."A number of Catholics immediately reacted
strongly.
William A. Donohue of The Catholic League
accused Myers of anti-catholic bigotry, described
his proposal as a threat to desecrate what
Catholics hold to be the Body of Christ, and
sent a letter asking the University of Minnesota
and the Minnesota State Legislature to take
action against Myers.Myers pierced a Host
with a rusty nail, which he also used to pierce
a few ripped-out pages of the Quran and The
God Delusion, put them all in the trash along
with old coffee grounds and a banana peel.
He provided a photograph on his blog of these
items in the garbage and wrote that nothing
must be held sacred, encouraging people to
question everything.
In addition, he described the history of allegations
of host desecration, emphasizing the frequent
use of such allegations in medieval Europe
to justify anti-Semitism.According to Donohue,
as the Pharyngula website was accessible via
a link from the University of Minnesota website,
it should be bound by the institution's code
of conduct which requires faculty to be "respectful,
fair and civil" when dealing with others.
Subsequently, Myers explained to the Star
Tribune that while his post was "satire and
protest", he had received death threats regarding
the incident but was not taking them too seriously.
The University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM)
Chancellor defended Myers, and stated: "I
believe that behaviors that discriminate against
or harass individuals or groups on the basis
of their religious beliefs are reprehensible"
and that the school "affirms the freedom of
a faculty member to speak or write as a public
citizen without institutional discipline or
restraint."
== Al-Islam magazine ==
In 2009, two Muslim reporters from Al-Islam,
a small Malaysian magazine, participated in
a Catholic Mass, while undercover writing
an article on cases of apostasy from Islam
(riddah) and received Holy Communion.
The reporters afterwards spat out the Host
and photographed it to prove they had not
apostatised themselves.
The resulting photo was then published in
their May 2009 edition.
The magazine, which is owned by Utusan Karya,
part of the Utusan Malaysia Group, sent its
reporters, including Muhd Ridwan Abdul Jalil,
to two churches in the Klang Valley, as part
of a special investigative report.
The act of desecration occurred at St Anthony's
Church in Jalan Robertson, Kuala Lumpur.After
its publication, two lay Catholics from Penang,
Sudhagaran Stanley and Joachim Francis Xavier,
jointly lodged a police report against the
reporters.
The police took no action despite a potential
charge under Section 298A (1) of the Penal
Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings
of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing
the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds
of religion.The desecration caused widespread
outrage and condemnation from non-Muslims
as well as Muslims across the country.
Parties including the Archbishop of Kuala
Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam; the Catholic Lawyers
Society; as well as numerous editorials in
the media, criticised the government and the
Attorney-General for its failure to act.
Many saw this inaction as a case of the government's
double standards, when dealing with religious
issues.
Some nine months later, in early March 2010,
Al-Islam published an apology to the Catholic
Church and other Christians for the article.
It was posted on the website of its publisher.
Archbishop Pakiam, who is also president of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei, accepted the apology
and said that no further (legal) action would
be taken.
The journalist and his colleague have personally
never made any public statements on the matter
nor apologised.
== Desecration during a Black Mass ==
A Black mass is a Satanic ritual designed
to satirize or invert a traditional Catholic
mass.
Consecrated hosts are a common ingredient
in black masses, becoming the subject of desecration.
The hosts must first be stolen from the tabernacle
of a Catholic church, and/or secreted away
by people who are posing as parishioners taking
communion.
In 2014, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu held a
public black mass at the Oklahoma Civic Center
and planned to include the desecration of
a consecrated host, which was to be "stomped
on".
That did not transpire: instead, the host
was returned through an attorney after the
archdiocese filed a lawsuit for its recovery.
== See also ==
Cake of Light
Sefer HaRazim
Blood libel against Jews
Eucharist
Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist
Transubstantiation
Black mass
== References ==
Notes
Bibliography
Langmuir, Gavin I. (1990) History, Religion,
and Anti-Semitism, Berkeley, California: University
of California Press.
ISBN 9781850432906
Ocker, Christopher {April 1998) "Ritual Murder
and the Subjectivity of Christ: A Choice in
Medieval Christianity" Harvard Theological
Review, v.91, n.2, pp. 153–192Further reading
Agosín, Marjorie and Sepúlveda, Emma (2001)
Amigas: Letters of Friendship and Exile.
Austin.
Jacobs, Joseph; Schloessinger, Max (1901–1906).
"Host, desecration of".
In Singer, Isidore; et al.
Jewish Encyclopedia.
New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
Langmuir, Gavin I. (1990) Toward a Definition
of Antisemitism.
Berkeley, California: University of California
Press.
ISBN 9780520061446
Marcus, Jacob Rader (1938) The Jew in the
Medieval World: A Source Book: 315–1791,
Atheneum.
pp. 155–58.
**Primary source in respect of the Christian
atrocities against the Jewish community living
in Passau, Bavaria, in 1478.
Roth, Cecil (1997) "Host, desecration of".
Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version
1.0).
Ed.
Cecil Roth.
Keter Publishing House.
ISBN 965-07-0665-8
Rubin, Miri (1999) Gentile Tales: The Narrative
Assault on Late Medieval Jews.
New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
ISBN 9780300076127
Stow, Kenneth (2006).
Jewish Dogs, An Imagine and Its Interpreters:
Continiuity in the Catholic-Jewish Encounter.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
ISBN 0-8047-5281-8
Trachtenberg, Joshua (1943) The Devil and
the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew
and its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism.
New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
Weiss, John (1995) Ideology of Death Ivan
R. Dee, ISBN 1-56663-088-6
Wistrich, Robert S. (1992) Antisemitism; The
Longest Hatred.
London: Mandarin.
ISBN 9780749310783
== External links ==
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913).
"Sacrilege".
Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton.
Professor John Klier's review of Miri Rubin,
Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late
Medieval Jews
Discussion of host desecration accusations
in Poland by Magda Teter.
See also the video on that site
