[1] The second is an account retold in verse by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim; and the third is a Mozarabic liturgy from about 967 when his body was recovered and brought to Toledo (his relics were later deposited in Oviedo Cathedral).

[2] Pelagius was 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.

The boy, having remained a pious Christian, refused the Caliph's advances, striking the monarch and insulting him.

[6] Other accounts have him being shot from a catapult over the city walls, with the Caliph expecting his body to be dashed on the rocks of the river.

Bowman says that The Martyrdom of St. Pelagius not only demonstrates a conventual attack on Muslim morals, but also depicts a hero who refuses to assimilate.

At a time when the Christian minority was attempting to maintain its identity and traditions, its members were increasingly enticed by the more dominant culture.