Template for the Host Desecration Story

The medieval host desecration story generally follows this format:

A Jewish man (or sometimes a group of Jewish men) desires to procure a sacred host wafer or wafers, sometimes after having publicly doubted the sancitity of the host or the truth of the transubstantiation. The Jewish man finds a poor Christian woman, or a thief, or a poor priest, and pays him or her to steal the host from the church (sometimes the hired hand employs further stock characters in the plot).

Once he has the host, he takes it to his home, or to a temple, and, usually in a ritualistic manner, defiles the host in one or more ways. These include: stabbing the host, burning it, or tossing it into boiling water or oil. With each attempt, a miraculous incident occurs. This incident can include: songs of angels, strange lights, or the transformation of the host into a Christ-child. The Jewish man will sometimes injure himself in fear, which will later provide further evidence of his crime.

The Jewish man will attempt to hide the wafer, sometimes by breaking it into pieces and sending it to neighboring communities. He can hide it in wells, under floorboards or behind stones, in offal heaps, in rivers or streams, or underground. The wafer makes its location known to nearby Christians through further songs and miracles. Once discovered, the Christians will quickly capture the Jewish man, or his accomplices who will then implicate the Jewish man. The Jewish man will confess to the authorities, usually under torture. The authorities or the Christian community will execute the Jewish man, and sometimes his family, or they will force the family to convert. Very often the authorities, the church or the Christian community will slaughter the Jewish community, or force them to convert, or expel them from the city. The Jewish man (and the Jewish community's) property will be confiscated by the authorities or the church, his home and temple razed, and a chapel will be built at the location of the miracle.