Arriving in Asia, he witnessed Christians who were being killed who became martyrs. Saint Christopher was ordered to offer a sacrifice to the emperor. He refused, and it was decided to try and persuade him with money and women. Two women were sent to try and tempt him, but instead he converted to…
Saint Cecilia is said to have been born in the 2nd or 3d century A.D in Rome. However, the exact dates are unknown. She is believed to have been to daughter of an extremely wealthy Roman family and was a faithful Christian from birth. Cecilia was given in marriage to a pagan named Valerian, but she had vowed her virginity to God, and wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed in hopes of keeping this promise. Saint Cecilia disclosed her wishes to her husband on their wedding night and told him that an angel watched over her to guard her purity.…
I, the worst of all Twenty first century, it is probably the best time for humans to live in. Now, we have curable diseases, technology that helps us in our everyday life and our living expectation is close to 80 years old. It sounds like we’ve accomplish a lot as humans beings, however, there’s still something that does not let us advance and become a unified society free of racism and sex stereotypes, the male gaze. Gay people and for the most part women, still the most affected with this archaic ideology that was created many centuries ago. The catholic religion was the mayor influence that encouraged that ideology.…
Sometimes, in situations of great danger, one must abandon their compassion towards others to survive. This is a human instinct, abandoning a usually vital part of their lives to secure the rest of it. So yes, sometimes people have to abandon compassion to survive a horrible situation. In the book, on page 26, multiple people on the train car to Birkenau abandon their compassion to make their situations better and more peaceful.…
St Agnes was tortured for being a Christian in her time, it was against the law to follow Christianity. Although in Australia I can not go through what St Agnes did for being a Christian, many people around the world are still tortured, placed in jail and even murdered for simply being a Christian. A way that I can help is by writing a letter to the united nations raising awareness of the lack of freedom of religion around the world. I would ask them to work hard in the 6 countries that the American government marked as “countries of particular concern” for religious freedom violations. These countries include Iran, Burma, China, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.…
For a Saint martyrdom was the ultimate way to go at this time showing her faithfulness to her god she was rewarded with death, a brutal painful death which…
The story and history of Saint Anne. Saint Anne was the spouse of St. Joachim, and was chosen by God to be the mother of Mary, His own blessed Mother on earth. They were both of the royal houses of David, and their lives were wholly occupied in prayer and good works. One thing only wanted to their union - they were childless, and this was held as a bitter misfortune among the Jews. At length, when Anne was an aged woman, Mary was born, the fruit rather of grace than of nature, and the child more of God than of man.…
Martyrdom has been cited as a “form of total love for God” (Pope Benedict XVI). In a time when Christians were being persecuted for their worship of God, or more specifically a refusal to worship the emperor, martyrdom was practically an honor bestowed upon unrepentant Christians. The Martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas is a rare first-hand account of sacrifice in its truest form. Perpetua writes of her numerous visions and encounters while mentally preparing herself for the death of a martyr at the hands of the pagans.…
Dona Beatriz was an influential figure in the Kongolese society that led a religious movement. Born into a higher-class family known as the Mwana Kongo, Dona’s family was much more respected. Growing up as a young child, Dona had a special gift to be able to speak to the Otherworld. She was trained as a nganga marinda, which led her to spiritually get more involved with the Otherworld. After her two marriages failed, she wanted to focus more on her spirituality and that is what she did.…
Michele Gelaude Friday, June 26, 2015 THEO 60250: Intro to Early Church Themes within the Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp Martyrdom, having its prominence during the third and fourth centuries, lasted for approximately 300 years under many different rulers. Emperors were intolerant toward Christianity and responded by putting Christians on trial, asking them to deny their faith or lose their life. The Christian martyrs who clung to their Christian faith showed the Spirit at work with their depth of discipleship. Similar to the martyrdom of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Perpetua, and Felicity, Saint Polycarp exemplified themes of Liturgy, veneration of the martyrs, and imitation of Christ. However, the narrative of Polycarp’s martyrdom…
On September 9th, 2016 I was a passenger in rear-end car accident. At the young age of seventeen, I was ignorant, rebellious and negligent. At this time, I honestly believed that I knew it all and was always in the right; I would ignore anyone trying to guide me towards the right path or give me advice. As in the short story “Rain of Fire” by Evan Thomas, I would have never expected that a regular day could end up in such catastrophe. I learned not to trust those whom I have not gotten to know well enough.…
The saint that I chose for Confirmation is Saint Rose of Lima. I chose Saint Rose of Lima as my saint because she was the first saint that I learned about. When I was little my grandma used to talk about how Saint Rose was her confirmation saint and how much that my grandma looked up to Rose when she was a little girl. I also loved how much Saint Rose cared about everyone that she met throughout her life. Saint Rose was raised in a Catholic family, but her faith grew stronger as she grew older.…
Dictionary.com defines “Genocide” as “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” Over the past century the world was unfortunate to witness genocides such as the Holocaust conducted by the Nazis in Germany which as one Wikipedia article states, “some six million European Jews were killed” and the genocide in Rwanda against the Tutsi by the Hutu where over eight hundred thousand Tutsi’s were slaughtered because they supported a different political party, therefore, from these two examples it is accurate to claim the atrocities done towards the Native populations by the Spanish as genocide because millions of the Natives populations were intentionally massacred, for they were inferior in religion, cultural and racial settings according to the Spanish. Bartholomew de las Casas was a Bishop who got to witness firsthand the mass murderers which was conducted…
As I am writing this paper, I am transcended into memories of my childhood as I am climbing, for the second time already, the highest mountain of Albania; Mount Tomor. Now when I say climbing I mean mainly being in the back of a pick up truck with at least 5 other members of my family as we are covering us faces from the dirt of the unpaved roads. Why is an 8 year old going through all of this you may ask? This journey is part of a pilgrimage that occurs every year and it symbolizes the virtues of Bektashism. Maybe you have never heard of it before or maybe you indeed have, but Bektashism is the religion that I once belonged to when I was growing up in Tirana, Albania.…
This was a wise move on the Parish’s part because England did eventually revert back to Protestantism. This change was largely in part to Mary’s cruelty in her Persecution of Protestants creating martyrs for Protestants to grieve. Even a Catholic Eyewitness expressed pity at the burning at the stake of Protestant theologian Thomas Cramer, “ I think there was none that…