Mozarab: Encyclopedia II - Mozarab - Religion

Mozarab - Religion

The Mozarabs remained out of the influence of French monks and conserved the Visigothic rite of Mass, also known as the Mozarabic rite. The Christian kingdoms of the North, though, have changed to the Latin rite (Castile in 1080) and appointed Northern bishops for the conquered sees. Nowadays, the Mozarabic rite is allowed by a Papal privilege at one chapel of the Toledo Cathedral. The St. Isidro hermit in Madrid also holds occasional Mozarabic masses. A Mozarab brotherhood is still active in Toledo.

Conversion to Islam opened new social horizons to Mozarabs. Some Christian authorities (Alvaro from Cordoba and Eulogius) were scandalized at how the young ones preferred the Arabic culture and language and, in 851, tried to raise confrontation by publicly offending Islam. They expected that, by becoming martyrs, they would visibilize the conflict. There were executions of Christians until 11 March 859. The Islamic authorities, however, often chose to consider them as madmen, thus deflecting tensions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Religion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki