page_title: Brussels massacre
section_title: Cult of the Miracle
hierarchical_section_title: Brussels massacre / Cult of the Miracle
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: vierhonderdjaeri02boec (find matches) Title: Vier-honderd-jaerig jubilé van het hoogweerdig en alderheyligste sacrament van mirakel&#160;: berustande in de Collegiale en Parochiale Kercke van de HH. Michael en Gudula, binnen de princelycke stad Brussel .. Year: 1770 (1770s) Authors: Boeck, F. Johannes de Subjects: Publisher: Brussel&#160;: J. vanden Berghen Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: heeft gelaeten ende vereert aen t Kloof-ter van S. Maria Magda/ena, geheeten Betha-^fiien binnen Brujjel; waer vanhier volgt, uychet Frans overgezet, de C O P Y E. ONdergefchreve bekenne op myne Prief-terlyke waerhcydt, van wylen myne^Moeder gehoort te hebben , hoe dat, foowanneer den Arts-bilfchop van Mechekn^(Hauchinus) het Hey/igh Sacrament van Mi-rakelen uyt de Cuftodie hadde genomen, endegeftelt in de groote Remonftrantie om te dra-gen naer de Kercke van Sinte Goedele; de^voorfz. Cuftodie in haers Moeders huys isbly ven liggen , waerom haere voorfz. Moe-der €en ander Cuft-odie heeft doen maeken ,•ende die gegeven aen de voorfz. Kercke, endedander behouden, naer wiens doodt die ge-comen is in de handen haers voorfz. Doch-ters , die de lelve heeft doen vercieren deenzyde met een Berdeken daer het voorfz. H.Sacrament ilaet .gefchildert, en dander zydeniet Reliquién. Naer haer doodt is de felvQ.Cuftodie gecnmen in myn handen , en hcbbe4,ie vgjcierc me; );wee vergulde Engelen Qn Text Appearing After Image: van V H. Sacrament van Mirakel 247 eenen lilveren Heyligen Geeft, flaende te fae-men op een fwerc Pedeftael alwaer myne Wa-pen op-lluet, en eenige Reliquien inne zyn.Welcke Cuftodie alfoo vercierc, ick hehbfgegeven , en geve mits defen aen het Clooftcrviia S. Maria Magdakna geheeten Bethanienbinnen Brujjèl ^ om de felve ie bewaeren endate fteilen by tyde op ecnen Autacr in denieuwe Kercke. Item geve al-nogh aen het voorfz. Cloofterdry Schilderyen , een daer de Remonftrantievan het Hoogweerdigh Sacrament op-ftaet ge-fchildert, de tweede daer gefchilderc itaet hoehet felve in myn Groot-Moeders huys is ge-brochc, ende de derde, hoe dat er is uyt-gedragen. Dus t Oirconden hebbe ick dit on-derteeckent, en met mynen Segel gefegelcden tweeuen Jany 1063. Is OnJerteeckcnt, Hendrick van Cattenbroeck. Ende dit al, om dat de Reli-gieufen voor my en voormyne Ouders fouden bid-den , en Godt loven in fynH. Sacrament. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Brussels massacre was an anti-Semitic episode in Brussels in 1370 in connection with an alleged host desecration at the Brussels synagogue. A number of Jews, variously given as six or about twenty, were executed or otherwise killed, while the rest of the small community was banished. The event occurred on May 22.
  The supposedly recovered hosts became objects of veneration for local Christians as the Sacrament of Miracle. The cult survived until after the Second World War and the Holocaust, after which its antisemitic elements pushed the local church to derecognise it. It was claimed that the hosts had been stabbed by Jews and had miraculously shed blood, but been otherwise unharmed. The reliquary is currently preserved in the cathedral's treasury.
context_section_description: The hosts were placed in reliquaries and preserved in the then collegiate church of Saint Gudula, the patron saint of Brussels, an important symbol of the area's Catholic identity. They became a feature of the annual procession on her feast day.
  Emperor Charles V and the Habsburgs, as well as their relatives, donated seven stained glass windows on which the miracle is depicted. These were executed by Antwerp glass-maker Jan Hack after creations by Bernard van Orley and Michiel Coxcie. Four of them are still in place today. This compared perceived Jewish anti-Catholicism to the nascent Protestant Reformation, with the miraculous bleeding countering Protestant denials of transubstantiation.
  In the early 1580s, during a period of Calvinist rule in Brussels, all Catholic ceremonies were suppressed. From 1579 to 1585 the relics had been hidden in a house in the Korte Ridderstraat. After the end of Calvinist rule in 1585, a procession of citizens and officeholders had retrieved the hosts and carried them back to the church. The re-emergence of the cult in 1585 was primarily as a celebration of the end of Calvinist rule. The Archdukes Albert and Isabella, who ruled in Brussels 1598–1621, made the annual procession a state occasion:
  The Blessed Sacrament of Miracles ... had emerged as doubly miraculous after the end of Calvinist rule in Brussels in 1585 when it became clear that the sacred hosts had survived intact. The annual procession in honour of the Sacrament now became as much a commemoration of the second anti-Calvinist miracle as of the first anti-Semitic one and, after their accession, the Archdukes conscientiously attended the procession every year while also turning it into a veritable state event.
  Five windows added in the nineteenth century depict the development of the cult of the Miracle; these were donated by Belgian kings Leopold I and Leopold II and other nobles, this time linking the Miracle to the contemporary Catholic opposition to secularism.
  The 1870 quincentenary jubilee of the Miracle would have been marked with extraordinary celebrations, but tension between catholic and liberal circles was increasingly rising. Liberals, including the anti-Semite Edmond Picard, had called for a boycott of the festivities. A pamphlet by Charles Potvin (under the pseudonym Dom Liber) gave rise to a violent controversy with the young priest Hyacinthe De Bruyn, which was also fueled by imminent elections. As a consequence, church authorities decided to cancel these celebrations.
caption: Representation of the reliquary of the Blessed Sacrament of Miracle, and of the three hosts, made on the occasion of the 400 years jubilee.
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