Eucharistic visions of a slaughtered child served as conversion evidence for Saracens

Evidence

Ampelon, stunned, ordered his servants to remove the dead camels and went away. Later that day he returned (camel-less) to the church as priests were consecrating the Eucharist; they bade him enter and witness the “wondrous miracle.” But Ampelon recoiled in horror, for what he saw in their hands was not bread but a bloody child, which they were ripping apart and placing into a chalice before sharing it with the assembled faithful. Furious, Ampelon went to the bishop after the mass and asked him what he had been doing; performing the holy sacrifice with bread, the bishop answered. Ampelon accused him of homicide, telling him what he had seen. The bishop, awed, told the Saracen that he had benefited from a vision; he then explained the mystery of the Eucharist to him. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 370

Categorization

• XREF: The bloody-child vision of the Eucharist has deep parallels to blood-libel accusations later leveled against Jews, and to medieval wonder tales generally — connects to Tolan’s own broader theme of how medieval Christians imagined outsiders’ encounters with their most sacred rites.