St. Robert of Bury

Saint Robert of Bury (d. 1181) was a boy whose murdered body was said to have been found in the town of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1181 and whose death at a time of rising anti-Semitism was blamed on local Jews. He quickly became the focus of a martyr cult and it is likely this cult was a contributing factor in the later violent attack upon the Jews of Bury St Edmunds on Palm Sunday 1190, in which fifty-seven were killed. The whole Jewish community was afterwards expelled from the town.

Jocelin de Brakelond, a monk of Bury St. Edmunds who later wrote a Chronicle covering this period, also mentions writing a book about the miracles performed by the boy saint: but this is no longer extant.

Robert of Bury is one of a small group of 12th century English saints of strikingly similar characteristics: they were all young boys, all mysteriously found dead and all hailed as martyrs to alleged anti-Christian practices among Jews. Contemporary assumptions made about the circumstances of their deaths are typical of the Blood libel. Other such saints include Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Harold of Gloucester and William of Norwich.

For further details see Anthony Bale's The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1350-1500 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).