The Martyrs

Wrote seven letters to churches while chained between soldiers on the road to Rome, where the lions were waiting.

Taught by the apostle John himself; at eighty-six he told Rome he would not curse the King who had never wronged him, and they burned him.

A 22-year-old mother who kept a diary in prison and walked into the arena at Carthage singing.

Stayed with his people through plague and persecution, then walked to his own beheading and paid the executioner.

Kept wearing his philosopher's cloak after he met Christ, argued the faith to the emperor's face, and was beheaded for it.

Built Jerusalem's great Christian library and died in chains at Caesarea.

Chosen bishop when a dove settled on his head; killed in the first hour of the Decian persecution.

Fought heresy in Rome so fiercely he set himself up as a rival bishop, then died a prisoner in the Sardinian mines.

Insisted the resurrection means these actual bodies, not just the soul, and was martyred holding that line.

Spent his fortune copying Bibles for a great library, then spent two years in prison and was beheaded.

Wrote gentle rules for Christians who had cracked under torture, then was beheaded without a trial.

An Egyptian bishop who wrote down exactly what he saw in the torture chambers before they killed him too.

Bishop of Rome for six weeks, spent collecting the records of the martyrs before he joined them.

Resigned so Rome could have a working bishop, then died in the Sardinian mines beside the rival who had opposed him.

Led the Roman church through the uneasy quiet between two waves of killing.

Wrote the first Latin commentary on Revelation and died in Diocletian's persecution.

Chose exile in the Egyptian desert over signing a document against Athanasius.

Exiled twice to Sardinia by Vandal kings and kept teaching Augustine's doctrine of grace from there.

An Italian bishop remembered for standing against the Arians in his own city and paying for it.

Carthage's bishop, put on a leaking ship by the Vandals and pushed out to sea for refusing their faith.

Had his tongue and right hand cut off rather than agree that Christ had no human will.

Preached Christ as head of the church in Prague's own language, and sang at the stake in 1415.

Translated the New Testament from the Greek so a plough-boy could read it, and paid for it at a stake in 1536.

Collected the last words of England's burned believers so that nobody would be allowed to forget them.

Hid Jews behind a false wall in her family's watch shop, survived Ravensbrück, and went back to Germany to forgive.

Built China's house churches, then spent the last twenty years of his life in a labor camp for it.

Left safety in America to go home to Hitler's Germany, and was hanged days before the camp was liberated.

Spent fourteen years in Romanian prisons, three of them alone in a cell underground, and came out still preaching.