Flora and Maria

Flora and Maria were Christian virgins and martyrs of Córdoba in Spain, put to death on 24 November 851, honoured as saints by the Catholic Church. Both came from mixed Christian and Muslim families.

They suffered in the time of the persecution of Christians by the Saracen Moors, who ruled Spain at that time. Defending the Christian faith and rejecting Islam as a pagan faith, they were arrested and put in prison with prostitutes. There they met Saint Eulogius of Córdoba. In the year 851 both were beheaded in the square in front of the gate of the caliph's palace.

They were described in the Memorial of the Saints (Memoriale sanctorum) of Eulogius, who wrote their story and was then himself executed. The relics of the heads of the two martyrs were placed in the basilica of Saint Acisclus. Today they are venerated in the basilica of Saint Peter in Córdoba. Their liturgical commemoration in the Catholic Church is on the day of their death, 24 November.