Saint Pelagius of Cordova (ca. 912—926) is said to have been a Christian boy left by his uncle at the age of ten as a hostage with the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of al-Andalus, in trade for a clerical relative previously captured by the Moors, the bishop Hermoygius. Pelagius was intended to be eventually released in an exchange of hostages.

However, according to the testimony of other prisoners, his beauty was such that the Caliph fell in love with him when he had attained the age of thirteen. The boy, having remained a pious Christian, refused the Caliph's advances, striking the monarch and insulting him. Enraged, Abd-ar-Rahman had the boy tortured (which he survived for six hours) and dismembered.Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, Chicago, 1997; pp.10-28 Other accounts have him flung from a parapet after stripping himself naked, although these alternative accounts uphold his refusal to fulfill the Caliph's desires. Sarah Salih: Versions of Virginity in Late Medieval Europe: Woodbridge: DS Brewer: 2002; One Catholic reference (see below) omits any discussion of the 'sodomitic moor' aspect of the Pelagius myth. For historical context, one is directed to Jessica Coope and Kenneth Wolf's work, cited in the bibliography below.

Pelagius was later enshrined as a Christian martyr and canonized as "Saint Pelagius". His birthday is celebrated on June 26. The Martyrology of the Sacred Order of Friars Preachers The cult of Saint Pelagius is thought to have provided spiritual energy for centuries to the Spanish Reconquista, and is seen by some modern scholars as part of a pattern of demonization of Muslims and to portray them as morally inferior.Walter Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Beloveds, Duke University Press, 2005; p.2,Greg Hutcheon "The Sodomitic Moor: Queerness in the Narrative of the Reconquista" in Glen Burger and Stephen Kruger (eds) Queering the Middle Ages: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 2001

Bibliography: Historical Background

• Jessica Coope: Martyrs of Cordoba: Community and Family Conflict in an Age of Mass Conversion: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1995: ISBN 0803214715

• Kenneth Wolf: Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1988: ISBN 0521344166.

Notes

External links

• History of Pelagius of Cordova

926 deaths | Saints | Pederasty