In 1679, a woman named Regina Zalewska was accused of bewitching bread in the Polish city of Lublin. Her crime was not poison or blasphemy, but the quiet skill of a baker whose loaves rose when others failed. In a world gripped by famine and faith, her whispered prayers over the dough became proof of witchcraft, and her hands, the same hands that fed her neighbors, were condemned by fire.

This episode of The Forgotten Familiar uncovers the true story behind the legend of the Bread Witch of Lublin: the fear that turned hunger into heresy, the history of “bread magic” in early-modern Poland, and how women’s everyday labor became mistaken for the supernatural.

Step back into a world where bread was sacred, survival was suspicion, and the simplest act of nourishment could become an act of rebellion.

Continue the story beyond the episode inside Whisper’s Beneath on Patreon
where the full sources, readings, and modern practices inspired by this tale await.

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Music by Rockot from Pixabay

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