I know about the genre of martyrdom stories from a course on the Roman Empire and another on Christian history, so many of the tropes and themes were familiar to me though I had never specifically studied the Córdoba martyrs.

I would start by taking a more modern example of a “martyr” from current news reports (such as this one or this one). I would ask students to attempt to describe what happened in neutral language then look at how the term martyr shows a particular perspective and how there might be other equally valid interpretations of what happened). I would liken this process to the role of a jury in determining the facts of a case. I’d also briefly explain the genre of hagiography.

Then I would share a selected brief excerpt describing the martyrdom of one person in the vita of Eulogius. I would ask students to follow a similar process to try to determine what might have happened in neutral terms and then show evidence of a particular perspective.

Finally, I’d ask students to look at a physical map of the Mediterranean and see where the location of Córdoba is in relation to the rest of the Mediterranean region, and to look at a map of Al-Andalus and create hypotheses for why this group of hagiographies were written about Christian martyrs in Córdoba.