Their martyrdom is described by Saint Eulogius of Córdoba in 851 in his account of the Cordoban martyrs in the Memoriale Sanctorum, even though they were from Huesca because of their addition to the Roman Martyrology.

[3] Scholar Christian C. Sahner calls the sisters' story "dubious," but states that "the general circumstances of their lives are consistent with what we know about the internal dynamics of mixed families".

[6] Nunilo and Alodia were sisters born into "a rich family";[1] art historian Julie Harris called them, like many martyrs of the same period, "the product of a mixed marriage".

[7] When their father died, their mother remarried another "prominent"[3] Muslim man, "who was not as tolerant"[1] and was "an adherent of an obstinate conquering paganism",[7] so in defiance of his prohibition that they attend church and demand that they marry and convert to Islam, they were sent to live with their aunt, who was also Christian, in Castile.

After repeated failed attempts to get Nunilo and Alodia to agree to convert, they were arrested, put in solitary confinement, then "handed over to women of dubious morality to make them change their lifestyle",[1] and "were also pestered by many suitors to marry".