|
Even after the crusade against Byzantium, the church did not stop appealing to the people for a crusade to free the holy sites of Jerusalem. The appeal addressed not only emperors and kings, but also the common people and children. The call to action was followed by many young people.
In the year 1212, approximately 25 thousand German boys and girls left to peacefully liberate Jerusalem. What happened to these children remains unknown. Some are said to have gone to Italy, others to France. Thousands of them seem to have been sold into slavery.
After 18 years, one of the enslaved returned to Europe and reported that they were promised passage from France to Jerusalem, but were instead sold into slavery in Alexandria and Algiers. Two of the ships with the young crusaders drowned near Sardinia with no survivors. Pope Gregor IX ordered the construction of a chapel on the island of St. Pietro to commemorate the dead.
This chapel still stands today. |
|
