Marcelo's Secret

Marcelo's story really began some 300 years before his birth when medieval Spain had the world’s single largest Jewish community. This was the “Golden Age” of Spain’s secular and Jewish achievements. Some hundred thousand Jews lived and worked with Christians and Moors in an almost peaceful coexistence. However, anti-Jewish attitudes were on the rise throughout Europe.

It was 1478 in Granada, Spain that the Edict of Expulsion from the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established. Many Jews converted to Catholicism. Years later, it was a mixture of racial and religious prejudice against these Converso Jews that gave birth to the Spanish Inquisition.

Raised as a Catholic by Converso parents forced to covertly practice their Jewish religion, Marcello had no idea he was about to discover the perils of his true Jewish heritage. When the Inquisition summoned his parents for heresy, they sought to shield Marcelo from an inevitable death; they make secret arrangements for him to enter a Trappist monastery.

Disguised as a Franciscan missionary, Marcelo sailed to Mexico with two Franciscan priests and the hope that one day he would be free. This journey took Marcelo to adventure, friendship, love, and danger in a desperate attempt to flee the Inquisition's terror.