Flora of Cordoba

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St. Flora, painting on the main altar of the Cathedral of Cordoba

Flora of Córdoba († November 24, 851 in Córdoba ) was a Christian martyr who was beheaded towards the end of the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II in the Emirate of Córdoba . She is one of nine women among the 49 so-called martyrs of Córdoba who, according to the tradition of the contemporary authors Eulogius of Córdoba and Paulus Alvarus , were executed in the years 851 to 859 AD for public abuse of Islam or apostasy .

martyrdom

Flora was born in the first half of the 9th century to a Christian mother and a Muslim father in the then Moorish , now Spanish city ​​of Córdoba . Her father died when she was very young and Flora was raised a Christian. Her much older brother tried in vain to convert her to Islam and finally handed her over to Islamic justice. She was interrogated by the kadi , sentenced to be flogged and then handed over to an Islamic scholar who was supposed to compel her to renounce Christianity. Although she managed to escape to a sister in a Christian settlement, she then returned to Córdoba, where she visited the church of the holy martyrs Acisclus and Victoria for prayer. There she met a nun named Maria , sister of the deacon and monk Walabonsus, who was executed on July 16, 851 . The two young women encouraged each other to reject Islam in front of a kadi and were then locked in a dungeon . Since both of them continued to refuse to return to Islam, they were eventually sentenced to death - Flora according to Sharia interpretation for apostasy , Mary for blasphemy - and beheaded on November 24, 851. Their bodies were exhibited for a day unburied and then thrown into the river; their heads were later kept in the Acisclus basilica.

Adoration

Flora is depicted as a virgin martyr with a palm, cross and sword. Her feast day is November 24th.

On the Florenberg near Fulda named after her , the Fulda abbot Huoggi , who had obtained relics from the martyr, had a church consecrated to her built around 900, which was the ecclesiastical center of the area for several centuries. The church of St. Flora and St. Kilian, which stands there today, was built between 1511 and 1515 and is the third successor to this first church.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The birthplace of the Acisclus and Victoria siblings had been converted into a church.
  2. ↑ His feast day is June 7th.
  3. ↑ https://heilige.de/de/heilige/saints.88.html
  4. ↑ http://florenberg.pilgerzell.de/chronik/pfarrkirche.html

Web links

literature

  • Igor Pochoshajew: The Martyrs of Cordoba: Christians in Muslim Spain in the 9th Century. Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-87476-540-4 , p. 178.
personal data
SURNAME Flora of Cordoba
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early Christian martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Cordoba
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 851
Place of death Cordoba