Caterina Tarongi i Tarongi (1646, Palma – May 6, 1691) was a Jewish woman burned alive by the Spanish Inquisition.Miquel Forteza Pinya: Del meu temps (volumen II). Barcelona: Miquel Forteza, 1998. Consultado el 2 de abril de 2013.«Catalina Tarongí, cremada viva» (pág. 149).
The Tarongí i Tarongí family She was born in Palma, the capital of the then Kingdom of Majorca (which recovered its Roman name Palma in 1715).
She was the daughter of Rafel Josep Felós Tarongí i Aguiló, and Francina Tarongi i Martí. She was the wife of Guillem Morro Tarongi Fès. Caterina's parents had seven children in total: Caterina, Isabel, Margalida, Francina, Francesc Guillem and Rafel.
Between 1677 and 1678, 237 xuetas were imprisoned for celebrating Yom Kippur in the orchards of Pere Onofre Moixina Cortès, after being denounced by Rafel Cortès d'Alfons;Página 53, capítulo «Llinatges xuetes», en el libro Un juego de engaños, movilidad, nombres y apellidos en los siglos XV a XVIII de Gregorio Salinero e Isabel Testón Núñez. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2010. Consultado el 2 de abril de 2013. among the prisoners of the so-called "Conspiracy of 1678", were all the members of the Tarongí family, who were imprisoned and put on trial by the Inquisition. All the family assets were seized and everyone went away with several light sentences.The chuetas of Majorca: conversos and the Inquisition of Majorca (volumen 29, 227 páginas), de Baruch Braunstein. Mennonite Publishing House, 1936. Consultado el 2 de abril de 2013.
Just after the autos-da-fé of 1678, the two oldest siblings of Caterina, Francesc and Guillem, managed to flee the island and arrived in Alexandria (Egypt), where they openly returned to Judaism, taking back their Jewish names, David and Salomón, respectively.
The autos-da-fé of 1688 On the afternoon of Sunday March 7, 1688, a group of xueta (Majorcan Jewish) families from Palma tried to flee the island on an English ship, but the vessel failed to set sail and they returned to their homes; however, they were discovered by Mallorcan Catholics, and as a result they were quickly imprisoned.
Unlike the captured during the "Conspiracy of 1678", almost all the conversos were declared Jews and they refused to repent of their intention to return to Judaism in the countries where it was permitted. The trials were conducted during three years. In 1688, apparently because of the tortures that were applied on them, her parents and her sister Francina died.
The autos-da-fé of 1691 In 1691, the Spanish Inquisition held autos-da-fé in which a total of 37 Majorcan Crypto-Jews were killed, out of a total of 82 that were processed by the Balearic inquisitorial court:El Govern honrará este jueves a los judíos conversos condenados a muerte en 1691 por la Inquisición en Mallorca. 20 MinutosFrancesc Antich homenatja els xuetes executats per la Inquisició .
On March 7, 1691, when 21 Xuetes were sentenced to light punishments. On May 1, 1691: 21 prisoners were sentenced to death by hitting with a club and have their bodies burned later. On May 6, 1691, when the sentences to 21 other converts were pronounced: 14 were to be burned, and seven in effigy. Out of the 14, 11 were sentenced to die being hit with a club before being burned, as forgiveness for their confession. The other three defendants were sentenced to be burned alive: Rabbi Rafel Valls, Caterina Tarongí and her brother Rafel Tarongí. Her sisters, Margalida and Isabel Tarongí, were strangled and burned ón the same day.Una familia nefasta – Historia de la familia Tarongí. Rabino Nissán Ben Avraham, Shavei Israel. On July 2, 1691, when 23 converts were sentenced : 17 in person and 6 who were already dead or fugitives.
Caterina Tarongí was burned alive in the auto-da-fé on 6 May 1691.Pere Joan i Tous (ed.): Lista de asesinados por la Inquisición católica en la página XXIV del libro El olivo y la espada.] Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2003.Joan Ramón Resina: Iberian modalities. Liverpool (RU): Liverpool University Press, 2013. Consultado el 2 de abril de 2013.«Treinta y siete personas fueron quemadas vivas en la estaca debido a que no querían renunciar a su religión, incluyendo a Rafel Valls y los hermanos Caterina y Rafel Benet Tarongí» (página 163). It is said that the inquisitors were impressed not only with her beauty, but her determination in not abjuring her beliefs, even defiantly, which they attributed to the "diabolic qualities" she possessed.Minorías y migraciones en la historia. Jean-Pierre (et al.) Molénat. Universidad de Salamanca Her auto-da-fé was witnessed by about thirty thousand people.Braunstein, Els xuetes… p. 148 y 162.
There is a detailed account of the burnings and also of Caterina Tarongi and her brother Rafel in the book La fe triunfante, written by the Jesuit priest Francesc Garau:Artículo para la venta del libro La fe triunfante (en papel), en español, editado por Francisco Garau. Palma de Mallorca: Miguel Font Editor, 160 págs., 1984. .
They walked from where nowadays the Parliament of the Balearic Islands is located to Hoguera de los Judíos (the "bonfire of the Jews"), near Gomila Square.
The three of them, Rafael Valls and the two Tarongí siblings, have been commemorated as martyrs and heroes in ballads that balearic islanders have sung until recently.Gabriel Alomar, in his prologue to the work of Estrugo El retorno a Sefarad, pp. 8; Roth, pp. 96; the poem by Francis Pelagio Briz in the Catalan calendar, Barcelona: 1870. Kayserling (p. 184) cites the following stanzas, sung by the islanders:
En Valls duia sa bandera i en Tarongí es penó, amb sos xuetes darrera que feien sa processó.
Com es foc li va arribar a ses rues des calçons li deia «Felet, no't dons que ta carn no es cremarà».
I venia gent d'Eivissa, pagesos d'Artà, d'Andratx, perque el dia sis de maig feren sa socorradissa.
Valls carried the flag and Tarongí the banner with all the Xuetes behind them who were making the procession.
When the fire came to the wrinkles of her clothes she said: "Felet, do not give up, because your flesh will not be burned".
And people came from Ibiza peasants from Artá and Andratx, because the sixth of de May they made the burning.
The term "Felet, no't dons" used by Caterina Tarongí to encourage her brother, aged 21, not to surrender to the threats of the inquisitors, is still used in Majorca when referring to a stubborn person.
Legacy
On May 5, 2011, an official event was held at Consolat de Mar in memory of the burning of 1691, with the attendance of Francesc Antich, president of the Government of the Balearic Islands; Rabbi Nissan ben Avraham, descendant of the Tarongí family, and Rabbi José Wallis, descendant of Rafael Valls.Baruch Braunstein: Els Xuetes de Mallorca. Barcelona: Curial, 1976, pág. 158.«Francesc Antich homenatja els xuetes executats per la Inquisició» , artículo en el sitio web DBalears, del 6 de mayo de 2011. Consultado el 2 de abril de 2013. The event was the first ever organized by a regional government in Spain to honor the victims of the Spanish Inquisition.
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