Martyrs of Córdoba

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The hagiography of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba was developed in Christian Spain, describing in detail their executions for capital violations of Muslim law in al-Andalus. They were the most important new saints in Iberia in the 9th century. The martyrdoms instanced by Eulogius took place between 851 and 859; with few exceptions, the Christians invited execution by publicly stating their faith/beliefs: some martyrs appeared before the Muslim authorities to denounce Muhammad; others, Christian children of Islamic-Christian marriages, publicly proclaimed their Christianity (Coope 1995). The lack of an interested chronicler after Eulogius' own martyrdom has given a misimpression that there were fewer episodes later in the 9th century.

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[edit] Historical background

In 711 AD, a Muslim army from North Africa had invaded Visigoth Christian Spain. Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. The Iberian Peninsula was called al-Andalus by its Muslim rulers. When the Umayyad Caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750, the dynasty relocated to Córdoba, ruling an emirate there; consequently the city gained in luxury and importance, as a center of Iberian Muslim culture.

Once the Muslims conquered Spain, they governed it in accordance with Islamic shariah law. Christians and Jews were treated as dhimmis, or protected persons subject to a poll tax. Under many traditional interpretations of shariah, including those then current in al-Andalus, blasphemy against Islam, whether by Muslims or dhimmis, and apostasy from Islam were all grounds for the death penalty.

Though four Christian basilicas and numerous Christian monasteries mentioned in Eulogius' martyrology remained open, the Christian population was gradually becoming assimilated. Notably Reccafred, Bishop of Cordoba, taught the virtues of toleration and compromise with the Muslim authorities. To the scandal of Eulogius, whose texts are the only source for these martyrdoms, and who was venerated as a saint from the 9th century, the bishop sided with Muslim authorities against the martyrs, whom he regarded as fanatics. The closures of monasteries begins to be recorded towards the middle of the 9th century. The monk Eulogius encouraged the martyrs as a way to reinforce the faith of the Christian community. He composed tractates and a martyrology to justify the self-immolation of the martyrs, of which a single manuscript, containing his Documentum martyriale, the three books of his Memoriale sanctorum and his Liber apologeticus martyrum, was preserved in Oviedo, in the Christian kingdom of Asturias in the far northwestern coast of Hispania. There the relics of Saint Eulogius were translated in 884 [1].

[edit] The executions

In the city of Córdoba, Spain, between the years 850 AD and 859 AD, forty-eight Christians (mostly Christian priests) were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. What made this unusual, beyond the number of executions, were the circumstances under which the executions took place. In particular, it is known that the majority of the victims deliberately courted martyrdom by publicly pointing out the errors and contradictions in Islam and making declarations of Christian religious beliefs that are considered wrong in Islam (for example, the notion that Jesus is God). Most of the executions occurred as a result of Christian priests standing outside of Churches or going to Islamic courts and making statements of Christian belief that point out the inconsistencies in Islam, actions inevitably leading to arrest and execution by the Islamic authorities. There were also several executions for apostasy from Islam, involving both Christian priests and laypeople. Those who were executed during this historical drama became known as the Martyrs of Córdoba.

The detailed Acta of these martyrs were ascribed to the aptly-named "Eulogius" ("blessing"), who was one of the last two to die. Although most of the martyrs of Cordoba were Hispanic, either Baeto-Roman or Visigothic, one name is from Septimania, another Arab or Berber and another of indeterminate nationality; there were also connections with the Orthodox East: one of the martyrs was Syrian, another an Arab or Greek monk from Palestine, and two others had distinctive Greek names. The Greek element recalls the Byzantine interlude of power in southernmost Hispania Baetica,until they were finally expelled in 554: representatives of the Byzantine Empire had been invited in to help settle a Visigothic dynastic struggle, but had stayed on, as a hoped-for spearhead to a "Reconquest" of the far west envisaged by emperor Justinian I.

[edit] The martyrs of Córdoba

  • Pomposa September 19, 835. A nun at Peñamelaria near Cordoba. She was beheaded by the Emir of Cordoba.
  • Adolphus and John September 27 c. 850. Two brothers born in Seville, Spain, of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. They were executed in Cordoba under Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Perfectus April 18, 851. A priest in Cordoba in Spain, beheaded for testimony against Islam and Muhammad.
  • Sancho (Sanctius, Sancius) June 5, 851. Born in Albi in Septimania, he was taken to Cordoba in Spain as a prisoner of war, educated at the royal court, and enrolled in the guards of the Emir. He was executed by impalement for his refusal to embrace Islam, the very model of a soldier saint.
  • Peter, Walabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius and Jeremiah June 7, 851. Peter was a priest; Walabonsus, a deacon; Sabinian and Wistremundus, monks of St Zoilus in Cordoba in Spain; Habentius, a monk of St Christopher's; Jeremiah, a very old man, had founded the monastery of Tábanos, near Cordoba. For publicly denouncing Muhammad they were executed under Abderrahman in Cordoba. Jeremiah was scourged to death; the others were beheaded.
  • Sisenandus July 16, 851. Born in Badajoz in Estremadura, he became a deacon in the church of St Acisclus in Cordoba. He was beheaded under Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Paul of St Zoilus July 20, 851. A deacon in Cordoba who belonged to the monastery of St Zoilus and who was very zealous in ministering to Christians imprisoned by the Muslims. He was beheaded; his relics are enshrined in the church of St Zoilus.
  • Theodemir July 25, 851. A monk executed in Cordoba in Spain under Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Nunilo and Alodia October 22, 851. Two sisters born in Adahuesca in Huesca in Spain. Daughters of a Muslim father and Christian mother, they were raised as Christians. After the death of their father, their mother married another Muslim, who brutally persecuted them and had them imprisoned. They were finally beheaded in Huesca during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Flora and Maria November 24, 851. These two women were both the offspring of marriages between a Christian and a Muslim. In addition, Maria was the sister of Walabonsus, who had been executed earlier. Flora's father, who died when she was very young, was a Muslim, and so her Christianity was legally defined as apostasy. Although Maria and Flora denounced Islam in court together, Maria was executed for blasphemy and Flora for apostasy.
  • Gumesindus and Servusdei January 13, 852. Gusemindus, a parish-priest, and Servusdei, a monk, were executed in Cordoba under Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Isaac June 3, 852. Born in Cordoba, he became proficient in Arabic and a notary under the Moorish government. He resigned in order to become a monk at Tabanos, a few miles from Cordoba. During a public debate in Cordoba he denounced Mohammed and was executed for it.
  • George, Aurelius and Natalia, Felix and Liliosa July 27 c. 852. Martyrs in Cordoba under Emir Abd ar-Rahman II. Aurelius and Felix, with their wives, Natalia and Liliosa, were Spaniards whose family backgrounds, although religiously mixed, legally required them to profess Islam. After given four days to recant, they were condemned as apostates for revealing their previously secret Christian faith. The deacon George was a monk from Palestine who was arrested along with the two couples. Though offered a pardon as a foreigner, he chose to denounce Islam again and die with the others.
  • Leovigild and Christopher August 20, 852. Leovigild was a monk and pastor in Cordoba and Christopher a monk of the monastery of St Martin de La Rojana near Cordoba. They were executed in Cordoba under Abd ar-Rahman II.
  • Emilas and Jeremiah September 15, 852. Two young men, the former of whom was a deacon, imprisoned and beheaded in Cordoba under the Emir Abderrahman.
  • Rogellus and Servus-Dei September 16, 852. A monk and his young disciple executed in Cordoba for publicly denouncing Islam inside a mosque. They were the first Christian martyrs executed under Muhammad I.
  • Fandilas June 13, 853. A priest and Abbot of Peñamelaria near Cordoba. He was beheaded in Cordoba by order of Muhammad I.
  • Anastasius, Felix and Digna June 14, 853. Anastasius was a deacon of the church of St. Acisclus in Cordoba, who became a monk at nearby Tábanos. Felix was born in Alcalá of a Berber family, became a monk in Asturias but joined the monastery at Tábanos, hoping for martyrdom. Digna belonged to the convent there.
  • Benildis June 15, 853. Anastasius' execution inspired this woman of Cordoba to choose martyrdom herself the next day. Her ashes were thrown into the Guadalquivir.
  • Columba September 17, 853. Born in Cordoba and a nun at Tábanos, she was detained with the rest of the nuns, to prevent them from giving themselves up to the courts, when the Emirate closed the monastery in 852. She escaped, openly denounced Muhammad and was beheaded.
  • Pomposa September 19, 853. Another nun, from the monastery of San Salvador at Peñamelaria. She escaped the imprisonment of the nuns, went before the court and was executed, despite protests from her fellow nuns.
  • Abundius July 11, 854. A parish priest in Ananelos, a village near Cordoba. Unlike most of the other martyrs, Abundius was betrayed by others and did not volunteer to face the Emir's court. He was beheaded and his body was thrown to the dogs.
  • Amator, Peter and Louis April 30, 855. Amator was born in Martos, near Cordoba, where he was an ordained priest. Together with a monk named Peter and a layman called Louis (Ludovicus), the brother of the previous martyr Paul, he was executed by the Emirate for blaspheming Islam.
  • Witesindus (Witesind) 855. A Christian layman from Cabra, who had converted to Islam but later recanted; he was executed for apostasy.
  • Sandila (Sandalus, Sandolus, Sandulf) September 3 c. 855. Executed in Cordoba under the Emirate.
  • Elias, Paul and Isidore April 17, 856. Elias, a priest in Cordoba, was executed in his old age by the Moors, together with the young monks Paul and Isidore, two of his students.
  • Argymirus (Argimirus, Argimir) June 28, 856. Argimir, a nobleman from Cabra, was Emir Muhammad I's censor. He was deprived of his office on account of his faith and became a monk. He was accused by others of having insulted the prophet Muhammad and publicly proclaimed the divinity of Jesus. Argimir was offered mercy if he renounced Christianity and professed Islam; he refused, and was executed.
  • Aurea (Aura) July 19, 856. Born in Cordoba in Spain and a daughter of Muslim parents, in her widowhood she quietly became a Christian and a nun at Cuteclara, where she remained for more than twenty years. She was discovered by Muslim relatives, brought before a judge, and renounced her Christianity under duress. However, she regretted this, and continued to practice Christianity in secret. When her family discovered this, she was again brought before a court, refused to repent a second time, and was executed.
  • Rudericus (Roderick) and Salomon (Solomon) March 13, 857. Roderick was a priest in Cabra who was betrayed by his Muslim brother, who falsely accused him of converting to Islam and then returning to Christianity (i.e. apostasy). In prison he met his fellow-martyr, Salomon. They were both executed in Cordoba.
  • Eulogius of Cordoba March 11, 859. A prominent priest in Cordoba in Spain during this period. Outstanding for his courage and learning, he encouraged the voluntary martyrs and wrote The Memorial of the Saints for their benefit. He himself was executed for protecting St. Leocritia, a young girl converted from Islam.
  • Leocritia (Lucretia) March 15, 859. A young girl in Cordoba. Her parents were Muslims, but she was converted to Christianity by a relative. On Eulogius' advice and with his aid, Leocritia escaped her home and went into hiding. Once found, both were arrested. Eulogius, after years of being in and out of prison and encouraging voluntary martyrdom, was executed for proselytization, and Leocritia for apostasy.
  • Laura October 19, 864. Born in Cordoba, as a widow she became a nun at Cuteclara. Condemned as an apostate, she was thrown into a cauldron of molten lead.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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