(A.D. 857.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:--S. Eulogius, (March 11th), himself a
martyr in the same persecution, 859, wrote the Acts of all those who
suffered at that time, either from his own knowledge, or from the
testimony of eye witnesses.]
During the persecution of the Christians under the Moorish occupation
of Spain, there was a priest in the village of Cabra, about
five-and-twenty miles from Cordova, named Ruderick, who had two
brothers, whereof one had renounced Christianity and become a Moslem.
One night this apostate brother and the other were quarrelling, and
came to blows, when Ruderick rushed between them to separate them,
but was so mauled by both, that he fell senseless on the ground. The
Mussulman brother then placed him on a litter, and had him carried
about the country, walking by his side, and showing him off as a
renegade priest. Ruderick was too much bruised and strained to
resist for a while, but he bore this with greater anguish than his
bodily injuries, and as soon as ever he was sufficiently recovered,
he effected his escape. The renegade meeting him some time after in
the streets of Cordova, dragged him before the cadi, and denounced
him as having professed the Mussulman religion, and then returned to
Christianity. Ruderick indignantly denied that he had ever apostatized,
but the cadi, believing the accusation, ordered him to be cast into
the foulest den of the city prison, reserved for parricides. There
he found a Christian, named Salomon, awaiting sentence on a similar
charge of having conformed to the established religion for a while, and
then returned to the worship of Christ. They were retained in prison
for some time, the cadi hoping thus to weary them into apostasy. But
the two confessors encouraged each other to stand fast. Being made
acquainted with this, the cadi ordered them to be separated, but when
this also failed, he sentenced them both to decapitation.