QUOTATION: Martyrs

The martyrs were bound, imprisoned, scourged, racked, burned, torn apart, butchered--and they multiplied.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Martyrdom

There are two kinds of martyrs, one in open suffering, the other in hidden virtue of the spirit. For many, enduring the snares of the enemy and resisting all carnal desires, because they have sacrificed themselves in their hearts to the almighty God, have also become martyrs in time of peace, and if they had lived in time of persecution, they could have become martyrs in reality.

--St. Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, 7, 11.

QUOTATION: Saints

The saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same element in every age.

 
--G.K. Chesterton,  St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Martyrdom

Thus the prototype of the Christian witness is the martyr. Indeed, the original Greek word simply meant "witness".  Its usage was not confined to those who had died for the faith; rather, all who had suffered persecution "for the sake of the Name" (Acts 5:41) were witnesses, "martyrs". And their witness was not simply to their own convictions, powerful as they were, but to the demands of living in the truth as these witnesses had been grasped by that truth in the person of the Risen Christ.

--George Weigel, "The Sovereignty of Christ and the Public Church", in Against the Grain: Christianity and Democracy, War and Peace, 2008

QUOTATION: Martyrdom

How foolish are those who waste time in desiring to be martyred in far countries, but do not apply themselves in their state of life.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Christians

If Christians were powerless, the world would not feel the need to turn them into martyrs.

--Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Foreword, How Not to Share Your Faith, by Mark Brumley.

QUOTATION: Obedience

Yes, dear brethren, we may safely say that the Saints found all their happiness in keeping the commandments, and that they would sooner have endured martyrdom than to transgress them: and did not the martyrs suffer tortures and death, just because they would not transgress the commandments of God? What shame for us then, dear brethren, when at the judgment day we will face these martyrs; we who so often are prompted in our actions by even the mere thought of "What will the world say?"

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: Martyrdom in the Early Church

The suffering itself of Martyrdom was in some respects peculiar. It was a death, cruel in itself, publicly inflicted: and heightened by the fierce exultation of a malevolent populace. When we are in pain, we can lie in peace by ourselves. We receive the sympathy and kind services of those about us; and if we like it, we can retire altogether from the sight of others, and suffer without a witness to interrupt us. But the sufferings of martyrdom were for the most part public, attended with every circumstance of ignominy and popular triumph, as well as with torture. Criminals indeed are put to death without kindly thoughts from bystanders; still, for the most part, even criminals receive commiseration and a sort of respect. But the early Christians had to endure "the shame" after their Master's pattern. They had to die in the midst of enemies who reviled them, and in mockery, bid them (as in Christ's case) come down from the cross. They were supported on no easy couch, soothed by no attentive friends; and considering how much the depressing power of pain depends on the imagination, this circumstance alone at once separates their sufferings widely from all instances of pain in disease. The unseen God alone was their Comforter, and this invests the scene of their suffering with supernatural majesty, and awes us when we think of them.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Martyrdom", Parochial and Plain Sermons. Vol. 2

QUOTATION: The First Martyrs

Men, perhaps, suffer in various diseases more than the martyrs did, but they cannot help themselves. Again, it has frequently happened that men have been persecuted for their religion without having expected it, or being able to avert it. These in one sense indeed are martyrs; and we naturally think affectionately of those who have suffered in our cause, whether voluntarily or not. But this was not the case with the primitive martyrs. They knew beforehand clearly enough the consequences of preaching the Gospel; they had frequent warnings brought home to them of the sufferings in store for them, if they persevered in their labours of brotherly love. Their Lord and Master had suffered before them; and, besides suffering Himself, had expressly foretold their sufferings; "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." [John xv. 20.] They were repeatedly warned and strictly charged by the chief priests and rulers, not to preach in Christ's name. They had experience of lesser punishments from their adversaries in earnest of the greater; and at length they saw their brethren, one by one, slain for persevering in their faithfulness to Christ. Yet they continued to keep the faith, though they might be victims of their obedience any day.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Martyrdom", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 2

QUOTATION: The Apostle John

We may wonder how both the sons of Zebedee, James and John, came to drink from the chalice of martyrdom, since Scripture tells us only that the apostle James was decapitated by Herod. John, on the other hand, died a natural death. But in the history of the Church we are told that he was to be martyred in a vat of boiling oil; an athlete of Christ, he was saved from the oil and banished to the island of Patmos. John too suffered martyrdom; he, like the three young men who stood in the burning fire, drank from the chalice of martyrdom, though his persecutor failed to spill his blood.

--St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 20, 23.

QUOTATION: Causes

In history, the only causes that die are those for which men refuse to die.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Standing up for God

Stand your ground like an anvil under the hammer. The mark of a true champion is to stand up to punishment and still come out victorious. It is our duty, particularly when the cause is God's, to accept trials of all kinds, if we ourselves are to be accepted by him.


--St Ignatius of Antioch

QUOTATION: Martyrdom

No one is a martyr for a conclusion, no one is a martyr for an opinion; it is faith that makes martyrs.

--Cardinal John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations