Pelagius of Córdoba
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
Pelagius of Cordova | |
|---|---|
| Martyr | |
| Born | ca. 912 Asturias, Spain |
| Died | 926 Cordoba |
| Major shrine | Oviedo |
| Feast | June 26 |
| Patronage | abandoned people, torture victims, Castro Urdiales, Spain |
Saint Pelagius of Cordova (ca. 912 – 926) is said to have been a Christian boy left by his uncle at the age of ten as a hostage with the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of al-Andalus, in trade for a clerical relative previously captured by the Moors, the bishop Hermoygius. Pelagius was intended to be eventually released in an exchange of hostages.
The exchange never occurred and Pelagius remained a captive for three years. According to the testimony of other prisoners, his courage and faith was such that the Caliph was impressed with him when he had attained the age of thirteen. The Caliph offered him his freedom if converted to Islam.
The boy, having remained a pious Christian, refused the Caliph's offer. Enraged, Abd-ar-Rahman had the boy tortured (which he survived for six hours) and dismembered.Other accounts have him flung from a parapet after stripping himself naked, although these alternative accounts uphold his refusal to fulfill the Caliph's wishes.[1]
Pelagius was later enshrined as a Christian martyr and canonized as "Saint Pelagius." His observation is celebrated on June 26. [2] The cult of Saint Pelagius is thought to have provided spiritual energy for centuries to the Iberian Reconquista, and is seen by some modern scholars as part of a pattern of portraying Islamic morality as inferior to other moral theories.[3],[4] He is also the subject of a poem by Rhoswitha of Gandersheim.
External links
- http://www.catholic-forum.com/saintS/saintp97.htm
- History of Pelagius of Cordova
- http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5339
Bibliography: Historical Background
- Jessica Coope: Martyrs of Cordoba: Community and Family Conflict in an Age of Mass Conversion: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1995: ISBN 0-8032-1471-5
- Kenneth Wolf: Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1988: ISBN 0-521-34416-6.
- Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, Chicago, 1997; pp.10-28
Notes
- ^ Sarah Salih: Versions of Virginity in Late Medieval Europe: Woodbridge: DS Brewer: 2002;
- ^ http://www.op.org/domcentral/life/martyr06.htm The Martyrology of the Sacred Order of Friars Preachers
- ^ Walter Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Beloveds, Duke University Press, 2005; p.2
- ^ Greg Hutcheon "The Sodomitic Moor: Queerness in the Narrative of the Reconquista" in Glen Burger and Stephen Kruger (eds) Queering the Middle Ages: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 2001