On October 22, 851, two young Christian sisters named Nunilo and Alodia were beheaded in Muslim-ruled Spain for refusing to abandon Christianity and embrace Islam.
They lived near Huesca and were the daughters of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. After their father’s death their mother remarried another Muslim. Under the rules applied by the authorities the sisters were counted as Muslims because of their father’s religion. Their continued practice of Christianity was therefore treated as apostasy.
Brought before the local governor, they were offered wealth and marriage if they would accept Islam, and death if they refused.
For obvious reasons, they refused.
St. Eulogius of Córdoba, a priest, recorded their reply:
“O Governor, in the same way, we order you to turn to God’s piety! Which holy piety, in viewing things by His Light, made us aware that nobody can be wealthier than Christ, nobody can be happier than a faithful Christian woman. Through whom do the just live? Through whom has the power of the saints conquered? Without Him, life is nothing; without Him, death thrives forever. To abide in Him and live in Him is true comfort. To back away from Him is eternal ruin.
“By no means will we abandon partnership with Him while we are in this life, because believing our integrity is from Him, we look forward to someday being admitted into marriage with Him. For you bestow things that perish, of which you speak to entice us. We scorn them, considering them as nothing when one thinks about it; because we were aware that everything under the sun is vanity. Nor are we disturbed by the threat of punishment, which we recognize to be powerful in the short term. Indeed, death itself, which you put forward as the ultimate terror, we long for with the most welcoming love; for through it, we trust to ascend into heaven without delay, to approach Christ, and to be held fast in his embraces, never to be torn apart.”
They were then confined with Muslim women charged with breaking their resolve. The women failed.
The sisters were brought before the authorities again and once more confessed Christ. They were beheaded on October 22, 851.
Their deaths were part of a larger wave of Christian martyrdom in ninth-century Muslim Spain. During those years dozens of Christians were executed for publicly condemning Muhammad or refusing to abandon Christianity.
St. Eulogius of Córdoba, who documented the stories of Christians who confessed Christ and denounced the claims of Muhammad, was himself beheaded by the Muslim authorities on March 11, 859.
Among the best-known were Perfectus and Isaac, whose executions took place shortly before the sisters’ martyrdom.
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Perfectus: The Priest
The story of these executions begins in 850 with a Christian priest named Perfectus.
Perfectus served at the Church of Saint Acisclus in Córdoba when he was stopped by several Muslims who asked him what he thought of Muhammad.
According to St. Eulogius, Perfectus initially refused to answer because he knew that criticizing Islam could cost him his life.
But after the men promised that he could speak freely, he openly criticized Muhammad.
Continue reading below.