Today the Church remembers SS. Peter, Walabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius and Jeremiah, Martyrs.
Orate pro nobis.
Peter, Walabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius and Jeremiah are numbered among the Martyrs of Córdoba, forty-eight Christian martyrs who were executed under the rule of Muslim administration in Al-Andalus (name given to Spain under Islamic rule). The hagiographical treatise written by the Iberian Christian and Latinist scholar Eulogius of Córdoba describes in detail the executions of the martyrs for capital violations of Islamic law (sharīʿa), including apostasy and blasphemy. The martyrdoms recorded by Eulogius (the only contemporary source) took place between 850 and 859 AD, which, according to the Mālikī judges of al-Andalus, broke the treaty signed between Muslims and their Christian subjects.
In 711 AD, a Muslim army of Moors from North Africa invaded and conquered the territories that previously belonged to the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain, which comprised the Christian Iberia peninsula. Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. The Iberian Peninsula was called Al-Andalus by its Muslim rulers. When the Umayyad caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750 AD, the dynasty relocated to Córdoba, ruling an emirate there; consequently the city gained in luxury and importance, as a center of Iberian Muslim culture.
Once the Muslims had conquered Iberia, they governed it in accordance with Islamic law (sharīʿa). Blasphemy and apostasy from Islam were both capital offenses. In the Islamic religion, blasphemy includes insulting Muhammad and the Muslim religion. Apostasy is the crime of converting away from Islam. Under Islamic law, anyone whose father is Muslim is automatically a Muslim at birth and will automatically be guilty of apostasy if they proclaim any faith other than Islam. Anyone found guilty of either blasphemy or apostasy is swiftly executed in accordance with the Islamic death penalty.
The forty-eight Christians (mostly monks) were martyred in Córdoba, between the years 850-859 AD, being decapitated for announcing their apostasy publicly and blaspheming against Mohammed.
Peter, Walabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius and Jeremiah were all murdered on June 7, 851 AD. Peter was a priest; Walabonsus, a deacon; Sabinian and Wistremundus, monks of St Zoilus in Córdoba in Al-Andalus; Habentius, a monk of St Christopher's; Jeremiah, a very old man, had founded the monastery of Tábanos, near Córdoba. For publicly denouncing Muhammad they were executed under Abderrahman in Córdoba. Jeremiah was scourged to death; the others were beheaded.
Almighty God, who gave to your servants Peter, Walabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius and Jeremiah boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
