ΠΊΣΤΙΣ ŞI ΜΑΡΤΥΡΊΑ. MARTIRII – MĂRTURISITORI JERTFELNICI AI DREPTEI CREDINŢE
ΠΊΣΤΙΣ AND ΜΑΡΤΥΡΊΑ. THE MARTYRS – WITNESSES TO THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH

Summary/Abstract: Πίστις and μαρτυρία. The Martyrs – Witnesses to the Ultimate Sacrifice of the Orthodox Faith. Like Gerald Bonner said, iot may therefore be said that the early persecutions exhibit Christian martyrdom in its purest and simplest form: it is death for confession of the Name of Christ. As such it enjoyed an esteem in Christian eyes that no other service of Christ could equal. A Christian confessor awaiting martyrdom became the object of veneration. The essential element in martyrdom is not the physical act of dying but rather a disposition of the will to live for Christ, with the necessary corollary that, by a strange but wholly Christian paradox, living for Christ may involve the necessity to lay down one’s life for him. In imitation of Christ (Jn. 18, 37), Christians who followed in the way of Christ were also to give testimony to Christ and to be witnesses unto Him.

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