sambenitos

Updated: May 11, 2025

Diego Torres Vargas, the canon of the San Juan Cathedral, says in his memoirs: "Manso was made inquisitor, and he, being the first, may be said to have been the Inquisitor-General of the Indies; ... the delinquents were brought from all parts to be burned and punished here ... The Inquisition building exists till this day , and until the coming of the Hollanders in 1625 many sambenitos could be seen in the cathedral hung up behind the choir."

R. A. (Rudolph Adams) Van Middeldyk - The History of Puerto Rico: From the Spanish Discovery to the American Occupation

Francis, where preparation was made for the auto, the climate of India not permitting a celebration of that solemnity under the burning sky. They sat with their sponsors, in the galleries prepared, sambenitos, grey zamarras with painted flames and devils, corozas, tapers, and all the other paraphernalia of an auto, made up a woeful spectacle.

Sarah J. Richardson - Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal

These "sambenitos" were sacks of coarse yellow cloth with a large red cross on them, and figures of devils and instruments of torture among the flames of hell. The delinquents, dressed in one of these sacks, bareheaded and barefooted, were made to do penance, or, if condemned to be burned, marched to the place of execution.

R. A. (Rudolph Adams) Van Middeldyk - The History of Puerto Rico: From the Spanish Discovery to the American Occupation