Medieval Mass Hysteria: The Youth Crusade that Defied the Pope

Eda Obey
7 min readMay 30, 2020

The tragic tale of a 13th century children’s movement you’ve never heard of.

Watercolor of Nicholas of Cologne 2001 by Eda Obey

They put us to shame. While they rush to the recovery of the Holy Land, we sleep”

— Pope Innocent III

I first heard about the Children’s Crusade in 90s from a DC Comic/Vertigo series Dead Boy Detectives: A Children’s Crusade by

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Eda Obey

Internationally published writer of urban animal fiction, short stories and feminist horror. EIC Last Girls Club.