Martyr!
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"This is my oldest son Mohammed. He would be 24 years old now."
"Yes, I remember him as a baby" says the other mother cheerfully.
"He's a martyr now though" mum confides.
"Oh, so sad dear" says the other.
"And this is my second son Kalid. He would be 21"
"Oh, I remember him," says the other happily, "he had such curly hair when he was born".
"He's a martyr too" says mum quietly.
"Oh, gracious me ...." Says the other.
"And this is my third son. My baby. My beautiful Ahmed. He would be 18", she whispers.
"Yes" says the friend enthusiastically, "I remember when he first started school".
"He's a martyr also," says mum, with tears in her eyes.
After a pause and a deep sigh, the second Muslim mother looks wistfully at the photographs and says...
"They blow up so fast, these days?"
Martyr
Saint Sebastian, an iconic image of martyrdom.A martyr (Greek "witness") is a person who is put to death or endures suffering because of a belief, principle or cause. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.In different belief systems, the criteria for being considered a martyr is different. In the Christian context, a martyr is an innocent person who, without seeking death, is murdered or put to death for his or her religious faith or convictions. An example is the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. Christian martyrs sometimes decline to defend themselves at all, in what they see as an imitation of Jesus' willing sacrifice.
Islam accepts a much broader view of what constitutes a martyr, including anyone who dies in the struggle between those lands under Muslim government and those areas outside Muslim rule. Generally, some seek to include suicide bombers as a "martyr" of Islam, however, this is widely disputed in the Muslim community.
Though often religious in nature, martyrdom can be applied to a secular context as well. The term is sometimes applied to those who use violence, such as those who die for a nation's glory during wartime (usually known under other names such as "fallen warriors"). It may also apply to nonviolent individuals who are killed or hurt in the struggle for independence, civil rights etc. Outside of an academic or religious context, the word "martyr" is used ironically in casual conversation to refer to someone who seeks attention or sympathy by exaggerating the impact upon themselves of some deprivation or work.
Martyr Term
St. George being broken on the wheel, St. Georg Stift, Tübingen, Germany. During the early Roman Empire, the independent cities of Asia Minor made efforts to reward benefactors for their services, and to promote further civic generosity by means of public acclamations, eulogistic honorific decrees were addressed to the Roman authorities and read in public places before an audience. Such commendations are usually referred to in epigraphic sources as martyriai. Christians adopted the phrase "martyrs" in the "testimonies" for the act, suffering and self-sacrifice of the persecuted. The meaning that 'martyr' has today first appeared around 150 AD in Christian documents. The first instance is in the Martyrdom of Polycarp.Martyr In religion
Martyr Judaism
Martyrdom in Judaism is referred to by the Hebrew phrase Kiddush Hashem, meaning sanctification of God's name.1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees recount numerous martyrdoms suffered by Jews resisting the Hellenizing of their Seleucid overlords, being executed for such crimes as observing the Sabbath, circumcising their children or refusing to eat pork or meat sacrificed to idols. First and Second Maccabees arose from the Pharisaic tradition, from which Christianity later diverged. The accounts of martyrs in these books influenced early Christianity's understanding of martyrs.
But not long after the king sent a certain old man of Antioch, to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers and of God: And to defile the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius: and that in Gazarim of Jupiter Hospitalis, according as they were that inhabited the place.
And very bad was this invasion of evils and grievous to all.
For the temple was full of the riot and revellings of the Gentiles: and of men lying with lewd women. And women thrust themselves of their accord into the holy places, and brought in things that were not lawful.
The altar also was filled with unlawful things, which were forbidden by the laws.
And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the fathers observed, neither did any man plainly profess himself to be a Jew.
But they were led by bitter constraint on the king's birthday to the sacrifices: and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were compelled to go about crowned with ivy in honour of Bacchus.
And there went out a decree into the neighbouring cities of the Gentiles, by the suggestion of the Ptolemeans, that they also should act in like manner against the Jews, to oblige them to sacrifice:
And whosoever would not conform themselves to the ways of the Gentiles, should be put to death: then was misery to be seen.
For two women were accused to have circumcised their children: whom, when they had openly led about through the city with the infants hanging at their breasts, they threw down headlong from the walls.
And others that had met together in caves that were near, and were keeping the sabbath day privately, being discovered by
Philip, were burnt with fire, because they made a conscience to help themselves with their hands, by reason of the religious observance of the day.
A historical account by Rabbi Ephraim ben Yaakov (1132 - AD. 1200) describes Crusaders' massacres of Jews, including the massacre at Blois, where approximately forty Jews were killed following an accusation of ritual murder:
"As they were led forth, they were told, 'You can save your lives if you will leave your religion and accept ours.' The Jews refused. They were beaten and tortured to make them accept the Christian religion, but still they refused. Rather, they encouraged each other to remain steadfast and die for the sanctification of God's Name."
During the Spanish Inquisition, many of those executed were Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. Specifically, they were cryptic Jews, who had pretended to adopt Christianity in an attempt to avoid persecution.
Martyr Christianity
Martyr before the Legalization of Christianity
Crucifixion of St. Peter, by CaravaggioOther than Jesus, John the Baptist, and the Holy Innocents, Eastern and western liturgical Christians revere Saint Stephen as the first martyr, or protomartyr. This term is also applied, with an appropriate description, to the first martyr of a given region: Saint Alban as the protomartyr of England or St. Francis Ferdinand de Capillas as the protomartyr of China.During periods of persecution in early Christianity, Christians were crucified in the same manner as Roman political prisoners or fed to lions as a games spectacle. Accounts of these martyrdoms are found in Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History and in various Acts of the Martyrs. Some accounts describe these deaths as reenactments of mythological scenes; The First Epistle of Clement recounts how Christian women were martyred:
Through envy, those women, the Danaids and Dircae, being persecuted, after they had suffered terrible and unspeakable torments, finished the course of their faith with steadfastness, and though weak in body, received a noble reward.
The reenactment is clear for Dirce she was killed by being tied to a wild bull. However, the Danaids' fate in Tartarus, of endlessly pouring water into a jug with holes, would not result in martyrdom. It has been suggested that the women, like the Danaids, were handed out to the victors in a footrace and therefore suffered rape prior to death.
A Christian Dirce, by Henryk SiemiradzkiChristians who were also Roman citizens were often beheaded; this was the fate of Saint Agnes and Saint Paul.
Although at all points Christians were in violation of the law for failure to worship the gods of the state, persecution was not consistent. In the Acts of Perpetua and Felicity, the raid to capture the Christians was not made to wipe out the Christians but explicitly to capture prisoners for a spectacle in the games; the capture of the patrician Perpetua was, in fact, an embarrassment, but her testimony made it impossible for the authorities to release her. Various Roman Emperors Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian ordered Christians to perform pagan sacrifices, but between the persecutions, Christians lived and worshipped unmolested. Orthodox Christian practice forbade the deliberate seeking out of martyrdom, but many Christians attempted to achieve martyrdom by turning themselves into the authorities, who did not always enforce the law.
Christians embraced their martyrdom
"Allow me to be eaten by the beasts that is how I can reach God; I am God's wheat and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ.... Pray to Christ for me, that by these means I may become a sacrifice."Ignatius to the Romans, Ignatius of Antioch.The degree to which martyrdom might be invited while skirting the sin of suicide became a matter of debate among theologians. The Martyrdom of Polycarp, for instance, carefully pointed out that Polycarp had not sought out martyrdom but been arrested; another man, Quintus, had voluntarily come forward and had apostatized, which the writer cites as a warning against seeking martyrdom.
Theological significance of martyrs
Icon of Ignatius of Antioch being eaten by lionsMartyrs were recognized as such because they preferred to die than to renounce their faith (i.e.apostatize). The Christian writer Tertullian (AD. 200) asserted that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church." The term martyr only slowly became identified with those who died for the faith; in the earlier centuries, it was often used for anyone persecuted, even those who survived, but in time, martyr came to indicate someone who died from persecution, whereas the term confessor was used for those whose sufferings had not been fatal.The acts of the early Christian martyrs are important historical sources; for example, the Passio Sanctorum Scilitanorum is regarded as the oldest Christian text in Latin (text).
The names of martyrs were enrolled in martyrologies, and the Feast of All Saints originally commemorated specifically all martyrs. Christians also preserved the physical remains of martyrs as relics, and commemorated the specific days of their deaths; both these practices were noted in the death of St. Polycarp.
Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox hold that those who witness to their Christian faith to the point of letting themselves be killed rather than renounce it are assured of salvation and access to heaven.
In the faith of these two traditions, which together represent the great majority of Christians, "Baptism of blood" brings about the same effects as "Baptism of water", namely, "By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God." Accordingly, Saint Augustine of Hippo commented: "He does an injury to a martyr who prays for him."
Even some who die without explicitly witnessing for Christ are considered to be martyrs. The Holy Innocents "are considered to be martyrs because they not only died for Christ but instead of Christ", "martyrs in fact though not in will." Somewhat similarly, Saint Maximilian Kolbe is also considered a martyr. He is one of the twentieth-century martyrs represented by statues over the Great West Door of Anglican Westminster Abbey, London.
Martyred missionaries and converts after 312 AD
St Boniface baptizing and being martyred, from the Sacramentary of FuldaThere was a renewal of Christian martyrdom after Julian the Apostate took the Roman throne in 361. Julian opposed the Christian religion in the empire and attempted to re-establish paganism in the form of Neoplatonism as the state religion. Among others, John and Paul were martyred under Emperor Julian.As the new religion expanded beyond the area of the derelict Roman Empire, the spread of Christianity entailed the spread of martyrdom. Martyrdom was suffered both by missionaries and by converts, for instance:
Rajden the First-Martyr, in the Persian empire, died 457.
Saint Boniface in Frisia, died 752.
Adalbert of Prague, the Baltic Prussians, died 997
Mikhail of Chernigov, the Mongols, died 1248.
Roque González de Santa Cruz, Paraguay, died 1628.
Isaac Jogues and companions in North America, died 1642 - 1649,
the Martyrs of Japan, died 1597
Pedro Calungsod, Guam, died 1672
the Martyrs of Korea, died 1839, 1846 and 1866, and
the Martyrs of Uganda, died 1885 and 1887.
Although a number of pagans were killed during the Northern Crusades and other violent campaigns aimed at imposing Christianity on non-Christian societies, these victims are normally not viewed within the context of martyrdom. Many Eastern Orthodox christians where also victims of these crusades as well as the Fourth Crusade.
Martyr Persecution of dissenters and heretics
Boris and Gleb, the first East Slavic martyrs. An early 14th-century icon from Moscow.In the High Middle Ages, many prominent cases of "martyrdom" had pronounced political overtones, as the Church used the concept to gain moral advantage in its ongoing struggle against the State. Some prominent examples include Thomas Becket (killed at the behest of King Henry II), Philip of Moscow (strangled on the orders of Ivan the Terrible), and the latter's son Tsarevich Demetrius (whose death was popularly attributed to Boris Godunov). Persecution of dissidents and the martyrdom that sometimes went with it (e.g., Albigensian Crusade) became institutionalised in the office of the inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the political systems of the State.The violent clashes of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation resulted in a new wave of atrocities and executions that were branded as "martyrdoms" by one of the sides:
John Calvin, taking power in Geneva, authorized the death of Michael Servetus and others.
Henry VIII of England executed those who did not accept him as the head of the Church of England, including both the Catholic Thomas More, the Protestant William Tyndale, and Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
The English Queen Mary I (who became known as Bloody Mary), when she had nearly three hundred Protestants tortured and killed (recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs) for refusing to denounce their reformist beliefs and for refusing to revert to Roman Catholicism.
The Martyrs of Gorcum were hanged "amid cruel mutilations" during the Dutch Revolt in the Netherlands.
In Eastern Europe, Catholics such as Melichar Grodecki, tefan Pongrác, and Marek Kriin were tried and executed by Protestants in
1619 in Koice, and John Sarkander in 1620 in Olomouc, while the Orthodox Patriarch Hermogenes was beaten and starved to death by the Catholic invaders of Moscow in 1612.
Puritan Massachusetts imposed the death penalty on Quaker missionaries, such as Mary Dyer.
Arrest of an Old Believer leader, Feodosia Morozova.Among the Orthodox, Patriarch Nikon's attempts to reform the Russian Orthodox Church led to the schism between it and the Old Believers, whose persecutions included execution. A peculiar form of martyrdom was the so-called "baptism by fire", a term which denotes the practice of mass self-immolations on the part of the Old Believers. Archpriest Avvakum and Boyarynya Morozova have been viewed as martyrs by the Old Believer community and as heretics by the official church.
Anabaptist Dirk Willems rescues his pursuer and is subsequently burned at the stake in 1569.Apart from the Old Believers, some other Christian and non-Christian sects originated in times of widespread persecution and martyrdom at the hands of other Christians trying to suppress their break-away sects. The Anabaptists, for instance, have embraced this part of their heritage to such an extent that the book Martyrs Mirror, which describes the deaths of Anabaptist Martyrs in the 16th and 17th century, is still widely owned and read in Mennonite and Amish households (see Anabaptist persecution for more).
In Latter-Day Saint belief, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Hyrum Smith are considered martyrs. The Smith brothers were viciously shot by an armed mob while in Carthage Jail in 1844. The Latter-day Saints themselves suffered many persecutions in Missouri, with several men, women and children suffering death at the hands of Missourian mobs. The most infamous incident occurred at Haun's Mill, which resulted in the death of 17 men and a nine year old boy. Persecution followed the Latter-day Saints as they headed out to the State of Deseret in 1845.
Martyr Martyrdom in the 20th century
The 20th century again saw large numbers of Christians martyred by non-Christians, in persecutions by political authorities that have antipathy directed towards particular faiths, or religion in general. Some church historians believe that there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in the first nineteen centuries combined:Martyr The Turkish persecution of the Armenians during World War I
The persecution of Christians by the Communist authorities in the Soviet Union and early People's Republic of China. The Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet times termed many of those who died for this faith "New Martyrs", meaning that it was the second greatest persecution of Christians since the early centuries of the Christian era.The Muslim persecution of Christians saw many New Martyrs created. The Taliban regime is known to have mounted a wave of persecutions. Many Christians died in southern Sudan during a long and bloody civil war with religious overtones. Soviet Union
An icon depicting the Romanov sainthood.After the Russian Revolution, the sixth sector of the OGPU, led by Eugene Tuchkov, began arresting and executing bishops, priests, and devout worshippers, such as Metropolitan Veniamin in Petrograd in 1922 for refusing to accede to the demand to hand over church valuables (including sacred relics). Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death, executed by firing squad. Patriarch Tikhon anathematized the communist government, which further antagonized relations.
In 1959 Nikita Khrushchev initiated his own campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and forced the closure of about 12,000 churches. By 1985 fewer than 7,000 churches remained active. It is estimated that 50,000 clergy were executed by the end of the Khrushchev era. Many thousands of victims of persecution became recognized in a special canon of saints known as the "new martyrs and confessors of Russia", including the family of the last Russian Tsar (see Romanov sainthood for details).
Martyr Fascist regimes
During the reign of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism in Germany, a large number of Christians were allegedly martyred. Among the most famous martyrs of that time are Maximilian Kolbe, Paul Schneider and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Also, many intellectual Catholic priests and nuns were killed in the Holocaust of Nazi Germany as well as under other European dictatorships of Spain, Portugal, and Italy.Pope John Paul II canonized hundreds of martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, mostly priests and nuns shot by irregular leftist militias.
The twentieth century was the great century of Christian martyrs, and this is true both in the Catholic Church and in other Churches and ecclesial communities. Pope John Paul II -Memory and Identity, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, p.44
Martyr Commemoration
A chapel of modern martyrs is maintained in the Corona at Canterbury Cathedral. There are many churches to the "new martyrs" in Russia, including a large neo-Byzantine complex in Butovo, Moscow and the Cathedral "on the Blood" in Yekaterinburg which commemorates the spot where the Ipatiev House used to stand.Martyr Islam
In Arabic, a martyr is termed "shaheed" (literally, "witness"). The concept of the shaheed is discussed in the Hadith, the sayings of Muhammad; the term does not appear in the Qur'an in the technical sense, but the later exegetical tradition has read it to mean martyr in the few passages that it does appear in. The first martyr in Islam was the old woman Sumayyah bint Khabbab, the first Muslim to die at the hands of the polytheists of Mecca (specifically, Abu Jahl). A famous person widely regarded as a martyr - indeed, an archetypal martyr for the Shia - is Husayn bin Ali, who died at the hands of the forces of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I at Karbala. The Shia commemorate this event each year at Aashurah.Muslims who die in a legitimate jihad bis saif (struggle with the sword, or Islamic holy war) are typically considered shahid. This usage became controversial in the late 20th century (due to the Islamic strictures against suicide), when it began to be applied to suicide bombers by various groups. There a huge controversy about the meaning of jihad in Islam, since Muhammad never claimed that suicide is equal to jihad; Jihad is an act of fighting for the Dar al Islam, either to defend it against an aggressor or to bring about its expansion. Where Muhammad explained, in hadith, that those who commit suicide are forbidden to even smell heaven. Some contend that these murders are contrary to the spirit of Islam, while many other Muslims argue they are fighters who "kill and are killed" in Jihad bis saif, the victims being legitimate targets. The concept of heroic martyrdom is termed "Istish-haad".
Martyr Bahá'í Faith
In the Bahá'í Faith, a martyr is one who sacrifices his or her life in the service of humanity in the name of God. However, Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, discouraged the literal meaning of sacrificing one's life, and instead explained that martyrdom is devoting oneself to service to humanity. `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh's son and appointed interpreter, explained that the truest form of martyrdom is a life-long sacrifice to serve humanity in the name of God. While the Bahá'í Faith exalts the station of its martyrs, martyrdom is not something that Bahá'ís are encouraged to pursue; instead one is urged to protect one's life.During the history of the Bahá'í Faith there are many who are considered martyrs. The Bahá'í Faith grew out of a separate religion, Bábism, which Bahá'ís see as part of their own history. In Bábism, martyrdom had the literal meaning of sacrificing one's life and was seen as a public declaration of sincerity. During the 1840s and 1850s the Báb claimed that he was the return of the Mahdi and gained a strong following. The Persian clergy tried to stop the spread of the Bábí movement by denouncing the Bábís as apostates; these denouncements led to public executions of the Bábís, troop engagements against the Bábís, and an extensive pogrom where thousands of Bábís were killed. In addition, the Báb himself was publicly executed in 1850. The Bábís that were killed during these times are seen as martyrs by Bahá'ís, and the date of execution of the Báb, who Bahá'ís see as a Manifestation of God equal to that of Bahá'u'lláh, is considered a holy day in the Bahá'í calendar, as the Martyrdom of the Báb. Also among the Bábí executions was the poetess Táhirih, who Bahá'ís consider the first woman suffrage martyr.
After Bahá'u'lláh abstracted the meaning of martyrdom, gave it a new meaning, and abolished holy war, the Bábís who became Bahá'ís stopped seeking martyrdom as a public declaration of sincerity. However, Bahá'ís continue to be persecuted in predominantly Muslim countries, especially in Iran where over 200 Bahá'ís were executed between 1978 and 1998. Among these executions include two sets of nine people who were part of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran, the national governing body of the Bahá'ís, who were arrested and killed only for their religious beliefs. The people who are killed just because they are Bahá'ís are also considered martyrs.
