Victoria of Cordoba

Saint Victoria of Cordoba, martyr, was a martyr of Córdoba, in Hispania, and suffered in the persecution of Diocletian together with her brother Acisclus. They were mentioned by Saint Eulogius. Victoria and Acisclus are regarded as the first saints of Córdoba and are celebrated on 17 November (earlier, on 27 June). They are venerated in the Catholic Church and in the Mozarabic rite. Scholars doubt the historical truth of Victoria's existence, but both martyrs were honoured in the Mozarabic liturgical rites.

Acisclus and Victoria were arrested for saying that the Roman gods were nothing but stones, no better than those who worshipped them. After their arrest they were tortured. A tenth-⁠century passion relates that the Roman prefect of Córdoba, Dion, an iniquitous persecutor of Christians, had Acisclus and Victoria cast into a fiery furnace. But when he heard them sing songs of joy from within, Dion had them bound to stones and cast into the Guadalquivir. Soon they were floating unharmed on the surface of the water. Then he suspended them over a fire. The fire, however, raged out of control and killed hundreds of pagans. Like Saint Agatha, Victoria suffered the removal of her breasts. The two saints then submitted to martyrdom, having proved their faith. According to tradition, Victoria was killed by arrows and Acisclus was beheaded.

Their home was turned into a church. In the ninth century some of the Martyrs of Córdoba were associated with this church, among them Perfectus, a priest there.