For through their unbelief, God has scattered them and has taken all wisdom from them. And from their sin he draws this fruit and this good: that our faith is helped and increased, and by their very own words they are confounded, as the Psalm says fully, according to the explanation of Saint Augustine.

The other way in which they renew the Passion of Christ, and that same sin, is in the very same thing, that is, in Christ. They do this in the sacrament of his body, treating it cruelly, because this is the same Christ whom they placed on the cross, with that same flesh and soul and divinity. They have done this many times, and many miracles are read concerning it.

Only last year, or not yet four years ago, this happened in Germany. Friar Giordano said: “I was in those regions when it happened that a Jew sent his maidservant to the church of the Christians and arranged, either through witchcraft or by another evil means, that she should obtain the body of Christ. When he had it, he and a hundred Jews in the house began again to enact the Passion of Christ in the worst way and with such rage that it was a marvel. They wickedly pounded it in a mortar.”

Then a child appeared, who was Christ himself. Because of this miracle and because of this cruelty, the maidservant, who was Christian, went out in great distress over these things and reported them to the authorities and to the bishop. A layman came, a spiritual person by the will of God, having zeal for the faith. Together with another artisan, he took up the banner and made himself leader of the matter, crying out: “Let the Jews be killed!” They ran through the whole city and the whole province, and more than twenty thousand people followed them. They killed as many Jews as they could find throughout the province, and blessed was the one who could kill them. More than six thousand Jews were killed at that time. This was perhaps four years ago or less, and Christendom should know this well.

Another miracle is read concerning this: In Greece there was a Jewish boy who returned from school with other Christian children. Now there it is the custom for small children to receive communion. This is a bad custom, and it should not be done until a child has knowledge of good and evil. It is not a custom that ought to exist.

It happened that when the other children were receiving communion, the priest also gave it to this boy, not recognizing him, so he received communion with the others. The boy returned home, and since it seemed to his father that he had been gone too long, his father asked him where he had come from and what he had done. The boy told him how he had been with the other children, and how he had been given the host to eat in this way.

Then the father, filled with wickedness, said: “Cursed be you by God and by me, my son. Now you have become one of those who are Christian.” He took him in his arms, went to the oven, which was full of fire, threw him into it, shut it with the stone and went away.

The baker opened the oven, and the child called out. He looked and saw the child standing in the flame, fresh and unharmed, more than when he had entered. The people who saw him, for many had gathered there, marveled at so great a thing. The child said: “Do not marvel at this, for Jesus Christ, whom I received today in communion, protects me from the flame and makes for me a dew, so that I seem to be entirely in dew and cannot receive any harm.” Not even a single hair of his was damaged.

Here the ancient miracle of the old law was renewed, of the three youths placed in the furnace. Then, when a great crowd had gathered at this marvel, the boy’s father was seized and placed in the oven, and he was immediately burned. At that miracle, some were converted; the others were confounded and driven out of those regions, and some were killed. From that sin there followed so much good and strengthening of the Christian people.

Therefore, when they can and as far as they are able, they seek to obtain the body of Christ in order to crucify him again.

The other way in which they renew the Passion of Christ is in his image, and this happens in two ways. The first is in the person of a human being, because every person is made in the image of God, as Saint Paul and Moses say. For God said when he made man: “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Therefore every person is in the image of God. In this too they renew the Passion of Christ when they can.

This I want you to know, and you should know it: every year, if they can, whenever they can do it, they take and steal a Christian child, some poor little one who is not known, and they put him on a cross as they put Christ, and make him undergo the same passion and death that they made Christ undergo. Now see what a most wicked thing this is! And see how from all their iniquity and sin God draws a great good.

For you should know this, perhaps you do not know it: because of the goodness of a Frankish friar, Friar Bartholomew, who was a minister, this thing and this sin of the Jews was discovered through something they did in that city of Apulia belonging to King Charles. The king could not remove the Jews from his lands. This good friar came to the king, having discovered this sin, and said to him: “I have found among the Jews a most wicked and murderous crime, for which, if you wish, you will be able to kill them all and expel them. Now you have the time, and you can do it very well by justice. I have found such a thing in such a way, the most wicked thing and the worst crime there is, for they do thus and thus.”

Then King Charles immediately and secretly had this investigated. He had all the Jews of the city and of the province seized and brought before him, and the Jews wondered at this novelty. Then he said to them: “You are accused of such a thing, of a most wicked crime, and you are all worthy of death.” They could not deny it. The king said: “Now see: of two things, one. Either you will pay for your sin, or you will convert to the faith and become Christians, and I will pardon you for this offense.”

When the Jews heard this, they withdrew and held counsel together, and they deliberated for a long time. At last they became Christians, returned to the faith and were all baptized. There were more than eight thousand of them. Before this, the region had been full of Jews; today, in all Apulia and in all the lands of the king, there is not one, because all became Christians. The others who were not taken all fled away and never appeared there again.

See how much good God drew from this: more than eight thousand people became Christians. At least this came from it. And more still, for the children of those people would have been Jews and will now be Christians, as will all those born from them. The other Jews who remain are confounded and disgraced. Every Christian ought to know this event. It was perhaps fourteen or fifteen years ago, a little more or less, that this happened.

Friar Giordano said: “One of those who was baptized became my fellow friar, and I went with him many times. He was a learned person and was lecturer in Naples.”

The other way in which they renew the Passion of Christ is in the second kind of image, such as painted or carved figures of Christ. In this they renew and enact the Passion of Christ. This is the feast of today: how, in a panel on which there was an image and painting of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, they renewed his whole Passion; and because of the truth of the blood that came out in such abundance from that panel by a divine miracle, and because of the many miracles and powers that it performed, the Jews were terrified. As a result, more than forty thousand of them converted to Christ, became Christians and were all baptized. The bishop sent some of that blood to all the churches of Christians. Friar Giordano told the story devoutly and beautifully. This story took place more than a thousand years ago; it is an old story, and it was the most manifest and clearest miracle that had happened since then.

Source: Giordano da Pisa / Giordano da Rivalto, Prediche del beato fra Giordano da Rivalto dell’Ordine dei predicatori recitate in Firenze dal 1303 al 1306, ed. Domenico Moreni, vol. 2, Florence: Magheri, 1831, pp. 237–232 in the scan sequence / sermon LX.