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Thesanbenito (Spanish:sambenito;[1][2]Catalan:gramalleta,sambenet,Portuguese:sambenito) was a penitential garment that was used especially during thePortuguese andSpanish Inquisitions. It was similar to ascapular, either yellow with redsaltires for penitentheretics or black and decorated with devils and flames for impenitent heretics to wear at anauto-da-fé (meaning 'act of faith').[3]
"San Benito" is the Spanish name of eitherBenedict the Moor orBenedict of Nursia. An alternative etymology byCovarrubias and former editions of theDiccionario de la lengua española has it fromsaco bendito "blessed sack".Américo Castro "proved that it does not come fromsaco bendito".[4]
Mexican writer and historianLuis González Obregón [es] describes the three basic types of tunic used to distinguish those being punished by the Inquisition. These were thesamarra, thefuego revolto, and thesambenito. Thesamarra 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. Thefuego 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, thesambenito featured red saltires, whose wearer was only to dopenance. Eventually all three types of tunic became known as asambenito; a conical cap, denominatedcoroza (andcapirote), of the same material and motifs as the correspondingsambenito, would also be worn.
The heretics, found guilty by theinquisitors, had to walk in theprocession wearing thesambenito as aShirt of Flame, thecoroza, the rope around the neck, therosary, 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 theHoly Inquisition. The lists of the punished were also calledsambenitos. The bearers of the surnames of those listed in the church of Santo Domingo inPalma de Mallorca were discriminated against asxuetas (the local name for Converso Jews), even when those surnames were also borne byOld Christians and the surnames of other Majorcan Judaizers were not preserved at the cathedral.
Thesambenito should not be confused with the yellow robes worn by somemonks, which are also garments related topenitence and which is one reason that caused the Inquisition to prefer common wool dyed yellow with red crosses for thesambenito. Such were the penitential robes in 1514, whenCardinal Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros replaced the common crosses with those ofSaint Andrew. The inquisitors afterwards designated a different tunic for each class of penitents.
In the 1945 edition ofMéxico Viejo, Luis González Obregón shows images from Felipe A. Limborch'sHistoria Inquisitionis, dated 1692, which were images ofsambenitos used in the Inquisition.