August 5

Jewish martyrs of Kitzingen (d. 1243)

On this day in the year 1243, a group of Jewish citizens of the Bavarian city of Kitzengen were suspected of using human blood to celebrate the Passover. They were accused, tortured, and sentenced to death after a summary trial. Their dismembered corpses lined the city's streets for fourteen days before civil authorities granted permission to bury the victims. The Kitzingen massacre, like many other medieval episodes of intolerance against the children of Israel, was carried out under Christian rulers, who had evidently forgotten how much it had cost the first apologists of their faith to acquit the disciples of Jesus Christ of the same absurd accusations of ritual homicide.

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THE CHURCHES REMEMBER...

ANGLICANS:
Oswald (d. 642), king of Northumbria, martyr

WESTERN CATHOLICS:
Dedication of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Roman and Ambrosian calendars)

COPTS AND ETHIOPIANS (29 abib/hamle):
Relocation of the body of Andrew (357), apostle (Coptic Orthodox Church)

LUTHERANS:
Franz Härter (d. 1874), father of the deaconesses of Strasbourg

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS AND GREEK CATHOLICS:
Vigil of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ
Eusinius of Antiochia (d. 362), martyr
John of Neamt-Hozevitul (d. 1960), hermit (Romanian Church)