Alquézar - relieve en la subida a la Colegiata

Saints Nunilo and Alodia (died ''c''. 842/51) were a pair of child

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

s from

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

. Born of a mixed marriage, they eschewed the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

of their father in favour of their mother's

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. They were executed by the Muslim authorities of Huesca in accordance with ''sharia'' law as

apostate Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

s. Their

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is 22 October. The girls were arrested during the persecutions conducted by

Abd ar-Rahman II Abd ar-Rahman II () (792–852) was the fourth ''Umayyad'' Emir of Córdoba in al-Andalus from 822 until his death. A vigorous and effective frontier warrior, he was also well known as a patron of the arts. Abd ar-Rahman was born in Toledo, Spai ...

, the

Emir of Córdoba Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremo ...

. When they refused to disavow their faith they were placed in a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

and later beheaded. Their relics were revered at the

monastery of Leyre The Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre ( eu, Leireko San Salbatore monasterioa; es, Monasterio de San Salvador de Leire) is a religious complex to the south of the Sierra of Leyre, in northern Navarre, Spain, representing one of the most import ...

in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when a portal was fashioned bearing their image, which still survives. The ''Translatio sanctarum Nunilonis et Alodiae'', a short account of the translation of their

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s to the monastery of Leyre in 851, survives in two tenth-century manuscripts. The children's relics were translated from Huesca to Leyre by Oneca, the wife of

Íñigo Arista Íñigo Arista ( eu, Eneko, ar, ونّقه, ''Wannaqo'', c. 790 – 851 or 852) was a Basque leader, considered the first king of Pamplona. He is thought to have risen to prominence after the defeat of local Frankish partisans at the Battle of ...

King of Navarre This is a list of the kings and queens of kingdom of Pamplona, Pamplona, later kingdom of Navarre, Navarre. Pamplona was the primary name of the kingdom until its union with Kingdom of Aragon, Aragon (1076–1134). However, the territorial desig ...

; they were later contained in the

Leyre Casket The Leyre Casket (, Museo de Navarra inventory number 1360-B, also known as the Leire Casket, Pamplona Casket) is one of the jewels of Hispano-Arab Islamic art. It is a casket or reliquary made of elephant ivory which was made in 1004/5 in the Cali ...

, an ornate ivory casket produced in 1004/5 in Muslim Cordoba.Julie Harris,
Muslim Ivories in Christian Hands: The Leire Casket in Context
, ''Art History'', 18 (1995), 213-21. There are some discrepancies between the account of the martyrdom in the ''Translatio'' and that recorded by

Eulogius of Córdoba Saint Eulogius of Córdoba ( es, San Eulogio de Córdoba (died 11 March 857) was one of the Martyrs of Córdoba. He flourished during the reigns of the Cordovan emirs Abd-er-Rahman II and Muhammad I (mid-9th century). Background In the ninth ...

References

* Catlos, Brian A. ''The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. . *

Collins, Roger Roger J. H. Collins (born September 2, 1949) is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh. Collins studied at the University of Oxford ( Queen's and Saint Cross Colleges) under Peter Brown ...

. ''The Basques''. London: Blackwell Publishing, 1990. .

External links

* http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/74810 * http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-nunilo-of-huesca/ * http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-alodia-of-huesca/ Saints duos 9th-century Christian saints Christian child saints Spanish Roman Catholic saints Christians executed for refusing to convert to Islam 9th-century Christian martyrs Converts to Christianity from Islam Spanish former Muslims Christian saints killed by Muslims Year of birth unknown Christian female saints of the Middle Ages 9th-century Spanish women {{Al-Andalus-stub