Harold of Gloucester, St.

views updated

HAROLD OF GLOUCESTER, ST.

Alleged martyr; d. March 17, ca. 116068, Gloucester, England. Harold was another young boy whose death was attributed to Jewish blood rituals. The story appears to have been handed down orally because many details of the written Peterborough and Brompton accounts are anachronistic. The boy's terribly abused body was retrieved from the Severn River and buried in Gloucester Cathedral. The cultus was permitted locally.

Feast formerly on March 25.

See Also: medieval boy martyrs.

[k. i. rabenstein]