Today in history, October 22, 851, two young Christian sisters, Nunilo and Alodia, were publicly beheaded in Muslim-ruled Spain for refusing to abandon their faith and embrace Islam.
Their “crime” arose from their parentage. Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Islamic law considered them Muslim. So when the state learned that the two sisters had embraced their mother’s Christianity, they were seen and treated as apostates.
The contemporary Christian writer Eulogius of Cordoba—himself later executed in Muslim ruled Spain (al-Andalus)—records the efforts to break their resistance. The governor offered wealth and marriage if they would but relinquish Christianity, threatening torture and execution if they refused. When neither promises nor threats worked, the sisters were separated and entrusted to women charged with instructing them in the Muslim religion. When this too failed, they were publicly paraded before being beheaded—all while still professing Christ.
The sisters are among other Christians collectively known as the Martyrdoms of Cordoba—Christians executed for refusing to profess Islam. Others would die for openly declaring what they believed about its prophet.
The story begins with Perfectus, a well-educated monk. While traveling to Muslim-ruled Cordoba, in 850, he was stopped by a group of Muslims he knew and apparently trusted. They asked him what Christians thought about Christ and Muhammad.
He told them his answer would likely upset them. They assured him to be at ease and speak freely, promising that they would not share his response with others.
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