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November 24

The holy Virgin Martyrs Flora and Mary of Cordova

Flora’s mother was a Christian from the village of Ausinianos, and her father was a Moor from Seville. Shortly after they went to Cordova to live, her father died, and her mother raised her as a pious Christian. So deeply did faith in Christ take root in the young virgin’s heart that during Great Lent Flora secretly gave her food to the poor, and only after her mother had often threatened her with punishment, fearing for her health, did she consent to eat, and then only in the afternoon.

Flora was the youngest child, and had a brother who held to the Moors’ religion and watched his little sister lest she keep the Christian Faith. So Flora left home and lived secretly with Christians to practise her faith freely. But when she found that her brother was persecuting the Church, even having clerics arrested, because of her, she gave herself up to her brother who, after beating her and still being unable to convert her, presented her before the judge. After her absolute refusal to deny Christ – Islamic law requires that the children of mixed marriages embrace Islam, even though one parent was a Christian – the judge had her flogged so savagely that the skin was torn from the back of her head, and her skull was exposed. Her brother then took her home and locked her up. But a few days later, after she had recovered, she made a daring escape by leaping from a wall by night, and hid in the village of Osaria.

Saint Eulogius of Cordova, who recorded many of the martyrdoms that occurred between 850 and 857, says that he touched with his own hands the scars of her “most venerable and delicate head.”

Mary’s father was a Christian who married an Arab and converted her to Christ, for which reason they left their home to avoid persecution. They had two children, Wallabonsus and Mary, and after their mother had fallen asleep in the Lord, their father committed Wallabonsus to be trained in the monastery of Saint Felix, and consecrated Mary to the convent of Cuteclara. Wallabonsus, not long after being ordained deacon, also became a Martyr, being beheaded for his confession of Christ before the Moors with five others on June 7, 851.

Mary wept much for her beloved brother, until a nun told her that Wallabonsus had appeared to her, bidding her tell Mary not to mourn for him any more, since she would soon be united to him in the Heavens. From that moment on, Mary’s heart was ablaze with longing for martyrdom. So one day she left her convent and went into Cordova, where so many others received the crown of martyrdom by confessing Christ, and went to the church of Saint Acisclus to ask the Lord’s help. Here by God’s providence she met Flora, and the two immediately bound themselves with a bond of friendship, agreeing to go to martyrdom together.

They appeared together before the judge who, infuriated by their bold confession, sent them to prison saying he would have them put in a brothel to be defiled. Saint Eulogius wrote them to strengthen them when they were daunted by such a fate; and by the mercy of God they were not subjected to the brothel. After a third interrogation in which they valiantly confessed Christ, they were beheaded and their bodies were thrown into the River Quadalquivir. Mary’s body was recovered and buried at Cuteclara; Flora’s body was never found, but her head, with Mary’s, was enshrined at the basilica of Saint Acisclus.

At the time of their martyrdom, Saint Eulogius was in prison, and asked them through others, as soon as they appeared before Christ, to free him from prison: which came to pass. They were beheaded on November 24, 851, and Saint Eulogius was released from prison five days later, on November 29.

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