Justin Sosnowski

Professor Sinclair
LBST 2102-342
12 February 2016
Martyrs & Martyrdom
Early Christians were the subject of a lot of persecution; hearings, imprisonment, and
death were quite common for those who did not follow the pagan beliefs of the Roman Empire.
However, some early Christians willingly put everything on the line for what they believed in.
Martyrs sacrificed their lives to proclaim their faith; in turn they were celebrated for it by other
Christians. Early Christian martyrdom embodies the heroic qualities of passion and a willingness
to sacrifice everything for what you believe in.
Martyrs sacrificed their own lives to proclaim their Christian faith and to be closer to
God. A perfect portrayal of a martyr is Saint Perpetua. In The Diary of Perpetua, Perpetua, a
Christian woman who has recently given birth, is placed in prison alongside fellow Christians.
According to Wayne Meeks, a professor at Yale University, early Christians like Perpetua were
persecuted by the Roman Empire because of how organized Christianity had become. The
Roman Empire (which had pagan beliefs) viewed the monotheistic views of Christianity as
dangerous because the religion was found throughout the entire empire. So, not only was early
Christianity found empire wide, but it was also highly organized, which greatly scared the elites,
so the Emperor saw that something had to be done about it. However, the Roman Empire did not
automatically arrest every single Christian and punish them by death; according to Paula
Fredriksen of Boston University, being Christian in the Roman Empire was not against the law.
Christians, who did not want to be persecuted for their beliefs, could purchase a ticket stating

they had performed a sacrifice to help the empire. This would allow them to continue practicing
their religion. Clearly martyrs were not a part of the group that willingly paid to practice their
faith.
In her diary, Perpetua writes of the hearing she was given, giving her the chance to save
her own life. She was asked to offer a sacrifice to help the emperor, to which she declined, and
when asked by the governor if she was a Christian, she proudly said Yes, I am. In that moment
with the refusal of offering a sacrifice and admitting to being a Christian, Perpetua and the others
who behaved in the same way she did were sentenced to die by beasts. According to Fredriksen,
Perpetua could be seen as an overachiever, due to her insisting on being martyred. Fredriksen
goes on to discuss how Perpetua feels so strongly about the situation because being martyred will
allow her to get to God through Jesus. Perpetuas willingness to die in the name of staying true to
her faith, in hopes of getting to God, demonstrates the intensity of being a martyr. A martyr was
not any ordinary Christian, but a Christian so passionate that they would give up everything for
their faith. This act of giving up everything relates perfectly to Fredriksens claim that the section
after the diary entry is somebody presenting a hero tale. The reasoning behind it being a hero tale
is that after Perpetua is brought to the arena to face her death, she is faced with beasts who are
unable to kill her multiple times and a guard who needs Perpetuas assistance in cutting her own
throat. The assisted suicide of Perpetua, as Fredriksen calls it, and the deaths of countless other
martyrs gave other Christians a way to measure their own faith.
Martyrs gave other early Christians a way to measure their own faith, which was part of
the reason that early Christians held them to such high esteem. In the eyes of early Christians,
martyrs were the ultimate heroes because they sacrificed themselves in the name of their faith.
Fredriksen makes sure to point out that martyrs were a minority. Every day early Christians were

not being martyred; they practiced their faith and admired the few martyrs for what they were
doing and what they were sacrificing. An interesting point that Fredriksen discusses is that
martyrs became even more popular after the conversion of Constantine in 312 CE. During this
time period the Roman Government was Christian, but even more Christians were being
persecuted for their religion than before, so naturally in this time of crisis Christians reveled in
their heroic history and grasped onto the past martyrs and really worshipped them. Elizabeth
Clark of Duke University amplifies this idea when explaining that martyrdom stories were most
likely written and told to raise the spirits of Christians during times of persecution. These
accounts of martyrs helped raise the spirits of other Christians by making them less afraid of an
all too possible imprisonment or death. Every day early Christians were reassured by the stories
of martyrs because the stories made them feel that if they kept their courage up in the face of
danger, they may also be martyred. In the eyes of early Christians martyrs were the ultimate
heroes.
Early Christian martyrdom contains the prime qualities of heroes. Martyrs captured what
it meant to be a hero in the days of Christian persecution by displaying their intense passion for
their religion, even when they could have done otherwise to avoid being killed. Martyrs defended
and embraced Christianity to the minute they were killed and because of this they were
celebrated long after their deaths. The passion early Christian martyrs displayed is what set them
apart from the rest and solidified their status as heroes.

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