Sanbenito ( Spanish: ''sambenito'';sambenito
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Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: ''gramalleta'', ''sambenet'') was a penitential garment that was used especially during the Spanish Inquisition. It was similar to a scapular, either yellow with red saltires for penitent heretics, or black and decorated with

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

s and

flame A flame (from Latin '' flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density the ...

s for impenitent heretics to wear at an auto-da-fé (meaning "act of faith").sanbenito
in

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...

Etymology

"San Benito" is the Spanish name of either

Benedict the Moor Benedict the Moor ( it, Benedetto da San Fratello; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was a Sicilian Franciscan friar who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic church. Born of enslaved Africans in San Fratello, he was freed at birth and became known for h ...

or Benedict of Nursia. An alternative etymology by Covarrubias and former editions of the '' Diccionario de la Real Academia Española'' has it from ''saco bendito'' ("blessed sack").

Américo Castro Américo Castro y Quesada (May 4, 1885 – July 25, 1972) was a Spanish cultural historian, philologist, and literary critic who challenged some of the prevailing notions of Spanish identity, raising controversy with his conclusions that Spaniards ...

"proved that it does not come from ''saco bendito''".

, '' Revista de Filología Española'', XV, 179-80. Quoted in ''santo'', '' Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana'', volume 4, page 143(25), Joan Corominas, Francke Verlag - Bern, 1954, .

Description and use

Luis González Obregon describes the three basic types of tunics used to distinguish those being punished by the Inquisition. These were the ''Samarra'', ''Fuego revolto'', and the ''Sambenito''. The ''Samarra'' was painted with dragons, devils, and flames amongst which the image of the prisoner could be distinguished, signifying that the impenitent heretic was condemned to be burnt alive at the stake. The ''Fuego revolto'' was painted simply with flames pointing downwards, signifying that the heretic who became penitent after being condemned was not to be burnt alive at the stake, but was to have the mercy of being strangled before the fire was lit. Finally the ''Sambenito'' featured red saltires, whose wearer was only to do penance. Eventually all three types of tunics became known as ''sambenito''; a conical cap, denominated '' coroza'' (and '' capirote''), of the same material and motifs as the corresponding ''sambenito'', would also be worn. Cornelis Vermeulen for Gabriel Dellon's ''Relation de l'inquisition de Goa'', 1688"> File:Cornelis Martinus Vermeulen - Man to be burned on the stake as an heretic.jpg, The ''Samarra'' File:Cornelis Martinus Vermeulen - Man condemned to be burned on the stake saved because of his confession.jpg, The ''Fuego revolto'' File:Cornelis Martinus Vermeulen - Man condemned for heresy who accused himself before he was judged.jpg, The ''Sambenito'' The heretics, found guilty by the inquisitors, had to walk in the procession wearing the ''sambenito'' as a

Shirt of Flame The phrase Shirt of Flame refers either to a specific form of the poison dress trope in folklore, or to a particular type of clothing given to people about to face burning at the stake. Pre-Christian, non-Christian, and magical usage Greek mytholog ...

, the coroza, the rope around the neck, the rosary, and in their hands a yellow or green wax candle. Originally the penitential garments were hung up in the churches as mementos of disgrace to their wearers, and as the trophies of the Holy Inquisition. The lists of the punished were also called sambenitos. The bearers of the surnames of those listed in the church of Santo Domingo in Palma de Mallorca were discriminated against as '' xuetas'' (the local name for Converso Jews), even when those surnames were also borne by

Old Christian Old Christian ( es, cristiano viejo, pt, cristão-velho, ca, cristià vell) was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people att ...

s and the surnames of other Majorcan Judaizers were not preserved at the cathedral. The sanbenito should not be confused with the yellow robes worn by some

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

s; which are also garments related to penitence and which is one reason that caused the Inquisition to prefer common woollen dyed yellow with red crosses for the sambenito. Such were the penitential robes in 1514, when Cardinal Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros replaced the common crosses with those of Saint Andrew. The inquisitors afterwards designated a different tunic for each class of penitents. In the 1945 edition of ''México Viejo'', Luis González Obregón shows images from Felipe A. Limborch's ''Historia Inquisitionis'', dated 1692, which were images of Sanbenitos used in the Inquisition.

Citations

{{reflist

General references

* González Obregon, Luis (1945). ''Època Colonial, México Viejo, Noticias Históricas, Tradiciones, Leyendas y Costumbres''. Editorial Patria, S.A. pp. 107–108. Catholic religious clothing Hats History of Catholicism in Spain Scapulars Shirts Spanish Inquisition

Etymology

Description and use

See also

Citations

General references