A TOAST TO THE HOST
[FÊTE] [ANONYMOUS.] Description de la cavalcade, accompagnée de chars de triomphe, qui sera exécutée par les écoliers du college, de la Compagnie de Jesus, a l’occasion du Jubilé de Quatre Cents Ans du Très-Saint Sacrement de Miracles, à Bruxelles le 16 et le 29 de Juillet 1770 Brussels J. Van den Berghen 1770
Rare French-language description of the procession marking the 400th anniversary of the Blessed Sacrament organized by the Jesuit College in Brussels, illustrated with five folding plates. In 1370 the Jews of Brussels were accused of stealing a group of consecrated hosts from the Church of St. Catherine. The blessed wafers purportedly began to bleed as soon as they were carried into the local synagogue. The bloodstained thieves were quickly arrested, tortured until confessions were obtained, and burned at the stake, while the miraculous hosts became objects of worship. Half of the wafers were returned to the Church of St. Catherine (these vanished in the 16th century) while the others were venerated at the Church of St. Gudule (Goedele), where the event is depicted in one of the celebrated stained glass windows. The citizens of Brussels commemorated the miracle of the hosts annually on the third Sunday in July, celebrating the occasion with particular pomp every fifty years. In time, the anti-Semitic origins of the feast diminished, and the processions developed in elaborate Baroque fashion, with numerous allegorical floats and ephemeral architecture. In 1770, the cavalcade was organized by the Jesuit College, with many students taking the roles of angels, Old Testament figures, and Habsburg rulers and their courtiers. Somewhat surprisingly, it appears that women were included in the cavalcade, in the guise of blessed virgins (see p. 22). OCLC lists U. Texas-Austin and Glasgow.
* De Backer/Sommervogel II.295-6; Menessier de la Lance I.226; not in Berlin Katalog, Landwehr or Lipperheid.; Catholic Encyclopedia III.23
$US3500
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