THE Leon Cathedral houses a real and unusual treasure: an evil scarecrow. It is an unusual historical and artistic piece dating from the 17th century, which represents a human figure made of wood and measuring approximately 40 centimeters high. THE the sculpture of the Cathedral of León is articulatedjust like the mannequins used by artists, he can bend his limbs, which makes it easier to kneel, sit, raise or lower his arms, thus giving more realism to the work.
Likewise, the the great expressiveness reflected in his face is somewhat disturbing and has a great visual impact in the Cathedral of Leónas if the little figurine was in some sort of trance. We observe the effort of the task he accomplishes through the wrinkles on his forehead, his open and toothless mouth as well as his glass eyes which look upward with an imploring and presenting air in one of them a glaze or cataract. The character wears a sort of garment tied around the waist with a rope.
What was the function of this object? The mission of this little figurine is not trivialsince he had a more than important task: he himself had to take charge of chasing away or exorcising the evil one.
Her We find its origins in a 16th century conventto drive out the demon of the flesh from this place, that is to say, to attenuate or eradicate sexual desire among its inhabitants who, being women devoted to religious worship, were obliged to maintain the purity of their body and soul. spirit. The devil’s scarecrow was another of the social controls that religion exercised over them, acquiring its maximum expression in cloistered convents, where it was common for them to have this character whose ugliness was capable of frightening the devil himself who, with his lies and stuff, I would try to seduce them.
Even if this type of object may seem absurd today, you have to try to see it with the eyes of people from the 17th centurywhere superstitions and irrational beliefs coexisted with the Holy Inquisition, a tribunal charged with prosecuting all types of sin and heresy that could be incited by the devil.
In the convents of this era, novices were generally 12 years old and the youngest nuns were around 16 years old. Adolescent girls were subjected to very hard work and long fasts, to which were added eternal hours of continuous prayer during which they could neither speak nor drink. The environment was prone to nullify all will, to which it was necessary to add methods such as flagellation or scourging to keep the excesses of the flesh at bay. All of this caused many of them to enter into paranoia situations.
One of these environments was reliably recorded by the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition, it is the case known as the “possessed women of San Plácido”, a convent located in the heart of Madrid and which still exists today, where in 1628 a group Of the 30 nuns in the congregation, 26 began to show signs of demonic possession. Some alleged witnesses claimed to have seen its inhabitants writhing on the ground, uttering insults and blasphemies, as well as heartbreaking screams. The girls were subjected to several exorcisms, but soon the scandal spread like wildfire throughout the city of Madrid. Eventually, the Inquisition reacted and began a thorough investigation that ended in 1631 after the confession, under torture, of Francisco García Calderón, the girls’ priest confessor, who admitted to having sexually abused them.
The figure of the scarecrow was so famous that it was also part of popular folklore. Three Leonese riddles bear witness to this, taking one of them as an example, and they are presented as follows: “Four springs, two evil scarecrows, a fly scarecrow and four mudslides”, the answer to which would be the cow.
The Cathedral Museum exhibits, alongside this figure, various objects that were used, along with the devil’s scarecrow, in exorcism rites, such as a wrought iron candlestick, a metal candlestick and boxes of wooden matches for the dead.
These types of images are not exclusive to the Catholic religion. Another important piece can be found at the Oriental Museum of Valladolid, from Japan. It’s about Shoki, or an evil scarecrow, facing two demons.
