Pelagius of Córdoba

Saint Pelagius of Córdoba (Pelayo) was a Christian boy from Asturias in Spain who was killed at Córdoba around 925 or 926 for refusing to deny Christ. He was born around 912. His uncle left him at the age of ten as a hostage with the caliph Abd-⁠ar-⁠Rahman III of al-⁠Andalus, in exchange for a clerical relative previously captured, Bishop Hermoygius; the exchange never took place, and Pelagius remained a prisoner for three years. The caliph offered him freedom and other gifts if he would accept Islam, and the boy, who remained a faithful Christian, steadfastly refused through all the years of prison.

For his refusal he was tortured for six hours and then, according to some accounts, dismembered; according to others, he was shot from a catapult over the city walls and, emerging unharmed, was beheaded. His relics were moved to León in 967 and to Oviedo in 985. The account of his martyrdom was written by Raguel, a priest of Córdoba, and Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim retold it in verse. He is commemorated on 26 June as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.