AT THE ROOTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN TITLE MARTYR (U zrodel wczesnochrzescijanskiego tytlu 'meczennik')

• Authors: Szczur Piotr
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This paper tries to establish the original meaning of the early Christian title martyr. Analising the source texts allowed to draw several important conclusions: 1) Christian writers of the first two centuries give the term martyr and its derivatives denotations connected mainly with the widely understood Christian testifying- especially with admitting to being a Christian; 2) In their understanding, it was possible to become a martyr (martyr) for that Christian who, during a court trial and in the presence of a judge, admitted to being a Christian, regardless of being tortured or killed. Death was treated as 'completion' of martyrdom; 3) For the followers of Christ admitting to being a Christian could have been a cause of great suffering because in that period of time the term Christian had a pejorative meaning; 4) In the course of time, probably around the middle of the 3rd century, they started to differentiate between martyrs and confessors. Those who died for their faith were called martyrs, and those who managed to survive in spite of having been sentenced to tortures, hard work in mines and quarries or even death were called confessors; 5) It seems that contemporary literature shows an inclination to define the difference between martyrs and confessors too early. In the consequence, the title martyr is given only to those who lost their lives for the faith.

Keywords

EN

HISTORY OF MARTYRDOM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; MARTYRDOM OF MISSIONARIES; REPRESSION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE COMMUNISM REGIME; TERMS AND ROOTS OR MARTYRDOM

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Faculty of Theology at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin / The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Publishing House
• Journal: Kosciol w Polsce. Dzieje i kultura (Church in Poland. Past and Culture)
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 10
• Pages: 23-40
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Szczur Piotr

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11PLAAAA105412