Aurelius and Natalia

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Aurelius and Natalia
Died	852, Córdoba, Spain
Martyred by	Abd ar-Rahman II
Means of martyrdom	Decapitation
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	27 July
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Aurelius and Natalia (died 852) were Christian martyrs who were put to death during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II, Caliph of Córdoba, and are counted among the Martyrs of Córdoba.

Aurelius was the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. He was also secretly a follower of Christianity, as was his wife Natalia, who was also the child of a Muslim father. One of Aurelius's cousins, Felix, accepted Islam for a short time, but later converted back to Christianity and married a Christian woman, Liliosa. Under Sharia Law, all four of them were required to profess Islam. In time all four began to openly profess their Christianity, with the two women going about in public with their faces unveiled. They were all swiftly arrested as apostates from Islam. They were given four days to recant, but they refused, and were beheaded. They were martyred with a local monk, George, who had openly spoken out against the prophet Mohammed. He had been offered a pardon as a foreigner, but chose instead to denounce Islam again and die with the others.

They are considered saints in the Roman Catholic Church, with a feast day of July 27.

[edit] References

• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.