Celeste

Holy Martyr Celeste (Santa Celeste) died executed in the year 850, under the reign of Abd al-⁠Rahman II. She is venerated in the Western Church and, according to the record, commemorated on 21 October.

Biographical data about her are practically nonexistent. It is known only that she was at Córdoba when an intense persecution began against Christians ordered by Abd al-⁠Rahman, who had promulgated laws against those who professed that religion; it seems, however, that Christians could practice their faith freely as long as they did not attack Islam, which was punished with death. According to tradition, Celeste, whose family was well known, was arrested for being a Christian. Abd al-⁠Rahman at first tried to persuade her to renounce her faith by flattery, but at her refusal he handed her over to an executioner to be beheaded. Her death is said to have occurred in 850, the year in which the executions of the martyrs of Córdoba began.

Her relics are kept in a glass urn before the altar of the church of Santa Teresa la Nueva in the historic center of Mexico City, as a "reliquary body" with the saint's bones, partly visible, and a wax effigy dressed in a bridal gown. She was brought to Mexico by the Jesuits in an unknown year and in 1867 was displayed at the church of Nuestra Señora de Loreto, on 1 November. The sources do not show how the body in Mexico came to be linked to the martyr of Córdoba, and the account is uncertain.