The first martyrs for Christ. Martyr of Christ from next door

One of the important moments in the preaching of the Christian faith is that part of the patristic church traditions, which speaks of the martyrdom of the early Christians for their faith in Christ. A huge number of pages of Christian literature are dotted with stories about the terrible torment and death of the faithful servants of Christ, whom the evil pagans destroyed in exorbitant quantities for preaching the word of God. And not in vain! For many centuries, such stories have inflamed hearts, served as an example for preachers and missionaries, convinced the masses of Christians of the truth of their teaching, for it was not in vain that Satan tormented the pagans of their glorious predecessors with the hands of the pagans, foreseeing his imminent death from the fiery ministry of the adherents of the church. Thus, the story of martyrdom in Christianity has always served as a powerful evidence and ideological base in the church. If only because, according to church traditions, the apostles of Christ themselves ended their life on the scaffold, with their heroic death at the same time proving the truth of their testimony about miracles and the resurrection of their teacher and serving as an example for their followers to follow in steadfastness of faith.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter, speaking to the people, declares: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (2:32). The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians of Corinth, seems to supplement his words: “But if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Comparing these two statements, we can draw a very definite conclusion: if the twelve apostles, who directly followed Christ for about three years, really witnessed miracles and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, as described in the NT, then the teaching of Christians is the absolute truth with everything. the ensuing consequences posthumous bliss for devotion to Christ and eternal torment for not believing in him. Since church traditions say that all the apostles of Christ, with the exception of John the Theologian, the author of the fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse, died a violent death, accepting martyrdom for their faith. To give himself to a cruel death for a fictitious idea, knowing that he is telling a lie, a person will never agree. For the sake of the triumph of his idea, he can sacrifice property, certain blessings of life, even his own health, but not life. It is impossible to imagine a dozen very intelligent men who invented and launched such a complex, strong and durable mechanism as the Christian church, suddenly went crazy and agreed to martyrdom for the sake of their own invention. Crazy, as you know, go one by one. So, one of the two. Either the apostles preached pure truth, in which case all unbelievers and pagans will face a very unenviable fate after death. Either their teaching is the greatest scam in the history of mankind; but how then to regard their martyrdom? As you can see, the issue is very important, requiring detailed consideration and study. There are frequent cases when people accept Christianity, struck by an irrefutable logical argument: the apostles could not become martyrs of Christ if they lied; therefore they spoke the truth; consequently, only in church repentance is the salvation of the soul. First of all, let us find out from what sources the information about the martyrdom of the apostles comes. Only the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul is sufficiently reliably known from the chronicles of the 1st century. The other apostles were not included in the list, and the only source that conveys information about their martyrdom for the faith is church tradition. Church tradition, as you know, is a very, very one-sided source. Many of the events set forth in the legends are not only not confirmed by historical documents and their lists, but often contradict them. Consequently, the authenticity of church tradition can only be measured by the level of faith in each individual, since the authors of the secular chronicles generally presented what was happening without prejudice, having no need to hide or embellish anything. Thus, the texts of church traditions compiled by people who are vitally interested in the triumph of their faith cannot be regarded as objective information. Many of these texts are directly reminiscent of a political order: they contain a clear intention to slander opponents and exalt members of their society. For example, pagans in church traditions are portrayed as malicious people, intolerant of Christianity, with pronounced sadistic inclinations; they brutally torture unfortunate Christians, calling them to renounce Christ, quarter them, impale them, roast them on a slow fire, torment them with the help of wild animals, and do all this in fruitless attempts to turn the poor martyrs away from the true faith, playing the role of the devil in flesh. However, nothing like this could happen for the simple reason that pagans are pagans (polytheists) because they recognize every person's right to believe in any deity of their choice. And not even one. When the Christian community arose and began to expand in Rome, ordinary Roman pagan citizens quite willingly placed figurines of Christ on their home altars, believing that one god would bring more happiness and good luck. Some warriors from the retinue of the Russian pagan prince Svyatoslav were Christians, and the prince, as a true pagan, never prevented anyone from being baptized and did not demand from anyone to renounce the faith of Christ, although he believed (drawing a conclusion only for himself and not imposing his opinions) that "Christian faith is ugly". In the mentality of a pagan, there is absolutely no prohibition of heterodoxy, since he himself reserves the right to start sacrificing to some new deity at any time, if he considers this spiritual connection useful for himself. So, the conclusion is obvious: never and under no circumstances could pagans subject Christians to persecution for their faith. In an attempt to defend their point of view, church preachers most often refer to the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, when Christians were exterminated in large numbers in circus arenas and on shameful crosses. However, remembering Nero, it should be borne in mind that this worthy man was never a pagan. As aptly put by G. Sienkiewicz ("Quo vadis"), Nero was a high priest, a god and an atheist all rolled into one. Not believing in any gods at all, he exalted exclusively his magnificent person, and in pursuit of the fame of an artist and the title of a people's favorite, he exterminated everyone who stood in his way without hesitation. During the reign of Nero, the pagans of Rome suffered no less than the Christians, and perhaps more (suffice it to recall at least the mass of people who died in the fire of Rome, when the city, at the will of the emperor, burned out almost to the ground). Torture and execution of people, regardless of their religion, were common under Nero. The persecution of the church by Nero was pure political action, which had no religious motives. The emperor was looking for scapegoats for his sins, and Christians turned up under his arm, a sect young and little studied at that time. If there had been no Christians in Rome at that time, Nero would have blamed someone else for setting fire to the city, for example, the priests of Isis or Cynic philosophers. Thus, the mass extermination of Christians by Nero cannot be called discrimination on religious grounds. Executions were not carried out for faith in Christ, but indiscriminately, for belonging to a community that was outlawed. In addition, martyrdom implies a voluntary death for the idea, when death can be avoided by hiding or renouncing one's faith. In the case of the Roman Christians during the reign of Nero, they had no opportunity to do either. They were simply caught in batches and, without trial or investigation, without listening to any complaints, denials, apologies, or explanations, they were quickly sent to execution. Hardly a day passed between the arrest and the killing. At the same time, neither Christ nor the principles of the doctrine of the executed Nero were interested. And even more so, he never persuaded any of the Christians to betray their faith, promising in return to save their lives.

It turns out that in matters of historical objectivity, church traditions cannot be considered trustworthy. Consequently, the information about the "martyrdom" of the twelve witnesses of Christ can only be accepted with a big stretch. With much greater success, it can be challenged.

Suppose for a moment that the apostles (or some part of them) really died a violent death. But not the fact that for faith. There were more than enough reasons for killing a person in those days when they had the most vague idea of ​​humanism. First, let's take into account the criminogenic situation of the 1st century AD, when robbers of all stripes were in charge on the high road, with equal ease taking away both their wallet and life from travelers. Secondly, let's take into account inter-ethnic hostility, the remnants of which have survived to our time (and the apostles, according to the same legends, traveled long distances, climbing with a sermon to the most remote areas from Judea). Thirdly, justice in ancient times was administered much more quickly than today, when investigators sank to forensic medical examination and investigative experiments, establishing the involvement of a suspect in a particular crime for months, or even years; then, for an early reprisal against a suspect, one denunciation-accusation of theft or murder was enough, because there were not enough prisons, and the maintenance of prisoners was a very expensive pleasure. Considering that of all the apostles, only Paul was a Roman citizen entitled to a Caesarian trial, it is easy to assume that no one would stand on ceremony with the others in a similar situation. Fourthly, let us remember that in ancient cities there were often popular unrest and riots, during which an innumerable number of people died, most often accidentally caught in the thick of things and trampled down by the crowd. Finally, with insufficient knowledge of medicine by the doctors of those times, diseases mowed down entire areas.

In a word, there were more than enough reasons for the death of one of the apostles. Considering the tolerance of the pagans, which was mentioned above, it is difficult to imagine a picture of the murder of the apostles for faith in Christ in pagan countries. But this is exactly how church traditions describe the situation. For ideological reasons, church chroniclers were ready to depict any death of any of the apostles as a martyr's death. For the sake of future generations. For the end justifies the means. This medal also has a reverse side.

In the 1st century A.D. there have not yet been such perfect methods of identifying a person as modern special services and public utilities use. There were no such charms of civilization as registration or Moscow registration, dossiers with fingerprints, passports with photographs and other means that make it difficult for a person to move from one area to another. In those blessed times, they settled anywhere, without providing any certificates from the place of departure, or permission from the Main Department of Architecture, simply putting up a house, digging a dugout, or entering someone else's family as a spouse. The only source of information about any newcomer was only his story about himself, but it was almost impossible to verify such information if, moreover, the person changed the appearance and legend in the simplest ways, such as: shaved or repainted his beard, shaved his head baldly, his Jewish accent gave out for Asia Minor or Thracian. There was a Jew Matthew became some Greek Athenogen from a village unknown to anyone in such a distance (fortunately, the Greek language was international in those days, and even Galilean fishermen spoke Koine (colloquial Greek), calmly lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death surrounded by loving family members. Is such a scenario possible? Doesn't it defy logic? Not at all. Therefore, this version has a right to exist. Having done his work, the Moor can leave. Having launched his fantastic work “into the people”, posing as an eyewitness account, the “witness” himself could well have evaded further responsibility, dissolving in an unknown direction, changing his appearance, name and nationality. Perhaps even having previously spread rumors about his martyrdom in the name of Christ somewhere in India, Ethiopia or the land of the Scythians. It should be borne in mind that in those days there were no other mass media, except for rumors and gossip, which were willingly believed by those who wanted to believe in them. In The Divine Claudius and His Wife Massalina, Robert Graves remarkably described the mechanism of spreading rumors, especially in a country like Palestine, where information about the next “messiah”, “prophet” or “miracle worker” appeared systematically, with enviable constancy.

“The emotional impact of Christianity is so strong primarily because its adherents claim that Yeshua, or Jesus, rose from the dead, which was not the case with any of the people, except in legends; after being crucified, he visited friends, apparently unaffected by his not-so-pleasant experiences, ate and drank with them to prove his bodily nature, and then ascended to heaven in a blaze of glory. And it cannot be proven that all this is fiction, because immediately after his execution, an earthquake began and a large stone, which blocked the entrance to the cave where the body was laid, turned out to be shifted to the side. The guards fled in horror, and when they returned, the corpse was gone; Apparently he was kidnapped. As soon as such rumors appear in the East, you can’t stop them, but to prove their absurdity in a state edict do not respect yourself ”(R. Graves).

Let us remind ourselves that church tradition is primarily an ideological document, and its veracity should be verified in the light of the historical chronicles of secular chroniclers. It is hardly possible to accuse them of bias: even if they were not Christians or disliked this doctrine, the authors of secular documents carefully recorded all the events that took place for posterity, mentioning among them events related to the Christian church as having taken place. However, non-church historical documents confirming the facts of the martyrdom of the apostles do not exist. Such a one-sided coverage of the events of the 1st century by church writers, we can rightfully call falsification. Consequently, the "evidence" of the apostles, who allegedly saw the resurrected Christ, for whom they allegedly gave their lives, can equally well be called a blatant lie and a scam, from responsibility for which they could easily evade when it was time to leave the stage. And not just leave, but leave, slamming the door.

An example of how myths about the heroism of the faith of the apostles were created and inflated, we can consider separately. For example, according to one of the church traditions, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called in the 1st century AD. preached Christianity to the ancient Russians. Through the Caucasus, he allegedly penetrated into the Northern Black Sea region, from where he reached right up to the outskirts of modern Kyiv, simultaneously baptizing the people and casting out demons from the possessed. Subsequently, he fell into the hands of pagan enemies, who forced him to renounce his faith in Christ and, in response to his proud refusal to do so, they crucified him on an X-shaped cross, which has since become known as the “St. Andrew's”. Admittedly, this is a beautiful legend. Full of emotions, heroism, and besides, adding to the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, allegedly founded almost a thousand years before the official christening of Russia by Prince Vladimir. A few years ago, archaeologists explored interesting finds in southern Russia. These were underground temples, or monasteries, located in caves. The characteristic wall paintings in these rooms directly indicate that Christian services were once held here. Archaeologists have dated the finds to the 2nd-3rd centuries. AD It is not clear why the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church considered this fact direct evidence that the founder of Christianity in Russia was the Apostle Andrew himself. In reality, this cannot be proof of the activity of the apostle in Russia, even indirectly. The only thing that can be asserted, based on the conclusions made by archaeologists, is that in the first centuries AD. Christian missionaries really penetrated the territory of present-day Russia. But no more. Perhaps they acted singly, and perhaps in whole groups. It is even possible that some of them pretended to be the Apostle Andrew to make their preaching more convincing. It is equally likely that some of the preachers were simply Greeks with the true Greek name "Andrew", since Christianity in Greece was already widespread in the 50s and 60s of the 1st century AD. As you can see, there are prerequisites for creating a legend about the missionary work of Andrew the First-Called among the Russians. But it is impossible to shamelessly pass off a theory as a fait accompli. Christian preachers are absolutely peremptory in their statements. There is an elementary political move.

So, what do we have in the bottom line? Only a fairly reliable mention of the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul in 67 AD. Although church traditions also serve as a source of information here, in any case, the story that Peter was executed among the Roman Christians during the Neronian repressions looks quite logical. The years of his stay in Rome coincide in general terms with the time of mass executions, and with their end, there is no more information about the life of the apostle. However, the very scene of the killing of Peter in the legend looks completely unrealistic. In particular, church writers claim that Peter was personally condemned and sentenced to death by Emperor Nero himself for his pious life and refusal to renounce his faith. In fact, there is not a single documentary evidence that Nero ever met with the supreme apostle; most likely, the emperor had no idea at all who the Jew Peter was. In addition, as already mentioned above, the emperor, who did not believe in anything, was completely not interested in the religious beliefs of his subjects, and outlawed Roman Christians only as scapegoats for the burning of Rome, and not for their faith. It is unlikely that Nero, busy only writing poems and performing in theaters, had even the slightest idea about the personalities of Christ, his apostles, and the teachings they taught.

Further, the legend paints a majestic picture of Peter's procession to the place of execution, when along the way he supposedly overshadowed all the people he met with the sign of the cross and sent a blessing "to the city and the world." At this point, there is a perfectly reasonable objection. Captured by the Roman special forces in the general crowd of Christians, Peter, most likely, was heading to the place of execution in the same crowd, not standing out from it in any way and having no opportunity to make passing speeches. Roman legionnaires were generally not in the habit of showing any kind of leniency towards the arrested, besides sentenced to death, or entering into negotiations with them. For the same reason, the fulfillment of Peter's request to crucify him upside down or his solemn speech addressed to the executioners seems completely unbelievable. The Romans took the execution of the condemned with all seriousness, they put this matter on stream, the crucifixion of a person took place in a matter of seconds, on the go, especially when a large mass of people had to be executed. In addition, it should be remembered that the Romans were great lawyers, and carried out the sentence in strict accordance with the established rules, and, therefore, Peter could not be nailed to the cross in a hazing position. Finally, let us once again pay attention to the fact that the execution of Christians was mass. This means that no one had the time or desire to interrogate those arrested on suspicion of belonging to a Christian sect, and even more so, to force them, if possible, to renounce their faith. It is possible that in the general crowd of the repressed, not only Christians died, but also pagans, captured by mistake, simply because at the time of the arrest they were close to the place of the special operation. But justice, we repeat, in those days was administered quickly and without delay. The then judicial system could not afford long trials with suspects and keep them in prison for a long time, periodically summoning them for interrogations and carefully delving into all the subtleties of the case. Received an order seized drove - killed. And that's it. No person no problem. Thus, it becomes clear that the death of the Apostle Peter, as well as the death of his co-religionists in Rome, cannot be called “martyrdom for the faith,” since they all fell victim to the most common political intrigues without any religious overtones.

There is even less information about the execution of the Apostle Paul. The Bible book "Acts of the Apostles" ends on a completely major note: Paul lives in Rome, does not tolerate any harassment, easily preaches his faith. And this is in a pagan environment, when, according to Christian logic, evil worshipers of gods-demons had to torment him daily in an attempt to force him to renounce the faith of Christ! It turns out that nothing of the sort happened. The execution of Paul, again according to church traditions, took place during all the same political repressions of the second half of the 60s. Remembering the pagan mentality, which did not allow the oppression of the Gentiles, we should also take into account the Roman laws, according to which no person (especially a Roman citizen, such as Paul!) could be sentenced to death for preaching any religion. Therefore, the official charge brought against Paul at the trial could in no way be related to his religious beliefs. Most likely, he was charged with some political or criminal offense, outside the context of his religion, and the court's decision could no longer be changed. As the Romans of that time said, “dura lex, sed lex” (“the law is harsh, but it is the law” lat.)). In this case, his renunciation of faith (if any) was no longer taken into account by the court. Therefore, it is quite logical to assume that Paul, realizing that his execution was inevitable, simply preferred to die a Christian, thereby finally playing into the hands of his fellow believers, which allowed them to make him a “martyr for the faith” and spread this rumor among Christian communities throughout empire. Finally, the fate of the Apostle John the Theologian, who lived a long and quite happy life, who died of natural causes at a ripe old age, convincingly proves that in the years of the formation of Christianity it was quite possible to avoid "martyrdom" without changing one's religious convictions.

So, with the apostles, everything is clear. It turned out that they could well consciously invent the legend of the resurrection of Christ and create a church machine, without fear of subsequently "responding for their words." Because, as it turns out, their imaginary "martyrdom for the faith" is nothing more than a propaganda trick of their associates. Now let us examine the cases of genuine martyrdom of Christians of later generations, people who already sincerely believe in those rumors and fictions that they themselves did not create and about the falsity of which they had not the slightest idea, taking them for pure truth. However was it really a martyrdom? In general, for what reason did cases of persecution of Christians by pagans occur? To begin with, let's open the Bible and look at the position of Abrahamic monotheism in relation to the shrines of other religions. In the book "Exodus" (34:12) we read: "Destroy their altars, crush their pillars, cut down their sacred groves, and burn the statues of their gods with fire." "Destroy their altars, and crush their pillars, and burn their groves with fire, and break the images of their gods, and cut off their name from that place," the book of Deuteronomy (12:3) echoes. “For all the gods are the tongue of demons” (“All the gods of the Gentiles are demons” (glory)), the author of the 95th Psalm confirms the same idea (v. 5).

Since the books of the OT were (and are) revered by Christians as sacred and inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16), this view of heterodoxy has been widely developed in Christianity. The "Acts of the Apostles" contains rather picturesque pictures of the struggle of the early Christians with pagan beliefs, which later formed the basis of the activities of the medieval Catholic Inquisition. For example, chapter 19 tells about the activities of the Apostle Paul in the city of Ephesus, when he provoked popular indignation with statements that "those made by human hands are not gods." The meaning of this story, compiled by Christian ideologists of the 1st century AD, lies in the fact that the troublemakers were Ephesian artisans who made money on the manufacture of statues of pagan deities, for whom the truth-seeker Paul allegedly ruined their business. But we have already learned to separate the wheat from the chaff, in other words, to look at the real events behind the veil of ideologically sustained stories, and we can draw a definite conclusion: popular indignation followed the blasphemous speeches of Paul, who denounced someone else's faith and other people's gods. The same chapter also speaks of the mass burning of pagan books, perpetrated by the same Apostle Paul. Thus, it becomes clear that if in some cases Christians were subjected to persecution and even death by pagans, it was by no means for their religion and its preaching, but for a disrespectful, sometimes even frankly boorish attitude towards other people's shrines. The pagans, on the contrary, as mentioned above, treated the person of Christ with a certain degree of reverence, as long as among Christians their teacher was proclaimed a god. The reasons why this happened will be discussed below, but for now it is enough for us to learn one simple truth: people who visited foreign lands and found themselves in the area of ​​​​other customs and traditions, openly expressing their contempt for these traditions and beliefs, were extremely unpopular with hosts who, as a human being, were offended by listening to nasty things about their gods and watching their shrines be vilified. Even before the baptism of Russia, the Russian embassy and merchants, who were in Constantinople, first of all went to worship Christ as the local ruler of the world. In response, Christians paid the pagans with black ingratitude, showing all possible signs of disrespect for the gods, for which they sometimes paid with their lives and were elevated by fellow believers-propagandists to the rank of "holy martyrs."

In the light of the foregoing, it becomes clear that Christianity was in fact nothing more than a large-scale scam, the dogma of which turned out to be the most adapted to all sections of the population of the Roman Empire: slaves and commoners were promised posthumous bliss for patience and obedience to their masters; the gentlemen, in turn, under the tutelage of the supreme authority of the "king of heaven" fell into the category of "God's anointed." Paganism, as a set of folk beliefs, turned out to be much less adapted for partnership with state power. It is for this reason that, starting from the 4th c. AD, Christianity gradually received the status of the state religion, and since that time, the blood of the pagans, exterminated by Christians solely for refusing to accept the new faith and remaining faithful to the ancient gods, has already flowed abundantly. The hosts of pagan martyrs killed by the meek servants of Christ, however, are somehow not customary to remember. And even more so to canonize them.

Understanding that the apostles of Christ were neither witnesses of the "resurrected" Christ, much less martyrs for believing in him, let's figure out how this scam arose and along what path it developed until it acquired clear features, finally materializing in the Christian church under the control "chosen priesthood". In order to get the greatest idea of ​​how Christianity arose and what it is like as a religion, one should, perhaps, first of all pay close attention to the religious and political situation of that time and the area where it was first proclaimed to astonished mankind " good news" of the twelve apostles.

From the angry words of the prophecies of Jeremiah, it follows that until the Babylonian captivity, the Jews secretly, but very zealously worshiped the Goddess of Heaven (presumably Ishtar Astarte). It is unlikely that they stopped doing this and subsequently, at least some of them. The Babylonian captivity of Israel ended in the 6th century BC, and already in the 4th century BC. Palestine was conquered by Alexander the Great (331 BC). The Near East was Hellenized, as was Egypt (by the time of the advent of Christianity, the spoken Greek language, Koine, was almost more common in Israel than Aramaic). Greece, Palestine and Egypt became a kind of "cultural triangle" of Hellenism. There is no doubt that European and Egyptian myths were widespread in Israel. However, the close contact of Jews with the cultures of the peoples of Europe, Africa and Asia began much earlier. During the Babylonian captivity, the Jews were scattered throughout almost the entire territory of the vast empire of Nebuchadnezzar, and later the state of powerful Persian kings. Even earlier (approximately 1,000 years before the rise of Christianity), as F. Brenier notes in the book “Jews and Talmud”, “the dispersion began in the reign of Solomon, who spread Jewish colonies even to Spain (Tarshish) and Ethiopia (Ophir), obliged to supply his gold, ivory and precious wood. (1 Sam. 9:26-28; 10:22)." It is also known about the existence of a large Jewish colony on the Isthmus of Corinth, founded by settlers from Judea in the first half of the 1st millennium BC.

About 100 years before the advent of Christianity, Israel was conquered by the Romans (63 BC). The Roman occupation once again served as a kind of "wide gate" for the penetration of Western culture and Western beliefs into Palestine.

There is no doubt that some of the Jews, under the influence of some pagan religions, held the belief in reincarnation (the Talmud speaks quite extensively about reincarnation; for example, Jesus the Nazarene is the new incarnation of the prophet Isaiah, Samson is the new incarnation of Japheth, Isaac is the new incarnation of Eve, etc. .d.). It is no less likely that the Jewish faith in the general resurrection is a revised view of the reincarnation of souls in the Jewish tradition. In Celtic mythology, which borrowed a lot from the religions of the ancient Greeks and Italians, there is a whole "divine trinity". Her second person is the god Jesus (the Latin pronunciation of the name Jesus). His symbol is a bull (in the Jewish tradition, a sacrificial animal; Jesus is called "a sacrifice for our sins" in the New Testament). Sacrifices were offered to him HANGED ON A TREE. The first person of the "trinity" is the god Teutates, the oldest and most powerful of them (an analogue of the Christian "heavenly father"). The third person is the god Taranis, the god of fire, lightning and storms, who accepted sacrifices burned in fire (the Christian "holy spirit" is identified with both fire and stormy wind). Esus is one of the incarnations of the “horned god”, the son of the Great Goddess, whom the Italians called Dianus (from the Latin divanus “divine”), and the Greeks Dionysus. According to ancient Greek myths, Dionysus was in mortal danger, but, being the son of Zeus (the god-father), he was spared from death: Zeus sewed Dionysus into his thigh, and then his second birth took place (an analogue of the biblical Resurrection of Christ, which Christians symbolically identify with subjective experience of “resurrection to Christ”, “new birth”, “born again”). The name "Jesus" in the ancient Egyptian pronunciation sounds approximately like "Jesus" or "Isis", that is, it has a common root with the name of Isis (the Egyptian Mother Goddess). Isis wife of Osiris, risen from the dead. The resurrection of Osiris took place with the active participation of Isis. The name of Isis and the theme of the resurrection from the dead are very closely related.

In favor of the Egyptian origin of the name Jesus (Yeshua) is also the fact that this name is never mentioned among the Jews of the pre-Egyptian period, which began shortly before the death of Jacob (Israel) and ended with the exodus of the Israelites from the ancient country of Kemt led by Moshe (Moses). Thus, for the first time the name Jesus is found in the biblical book "Exodus" that was the name of the disciple and future successor to the power of Moses. It is quite obvious that this name was transferred to the Hebrew language precisely from the Egyptian, but in the Hebrew pronunciation Yeshua it was given a new meaning: "salvation of Yahweh." Christianity was originally artificially fastened to the Jewish tradition, since the first Christians were Jews. Initially, they also converted Jews, their compatriots, to Christianity; hence their talk about the "heavenly father", visits to synagogues and constant quoting of the OT become understandable. However, when the “limit” was exhausted, in other words, when there were no Jews left in Judea who could still join the Christians, they declared: “From now on we go to the pagans. They will hear." Let us pay attention to the texts of the "Acts of the Apostles", which say that the pagans accepted Christianity much more willingly than the Jews.

Recent publications on related topics

The Christian martyrs who suffered in the East, from the time of the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, were translated from the Modern Greek language by the priest Peter Solovyov, St. Petersburg. 1862.

The book is available in its entirety here >>>PDF )

On the third Sunday after the feast of Pentecost, the Church of Christ celebrates the memory of all the new martyrs who suffered in the East since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453).

The hands of the godless Turks killed 11 patriarchs of Constantinople, more than 100 bishops and hundreds of thousands of priests, monks and laity. All Orthodox Christians who suffered martyrdom for their faith after 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, are called New Martyrs to this day. There are thousands and thousands of them. New Martyrs (Greek: Νεομάρτυρες) — glorified as holy martyrs, who suffered in the East (in the Ottoman Empire) after the fall of Byzantium (among them: Greeks, Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians). The names and lives of about three hundred of them are known. Rev. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer and St. Macarius of Corinth considered the new martyrs so important for the Church—its building and the salvation of its flock—that they compiled and published in 1799 a voluminous work on the new martyrs, The New Martyrology. It contains the lives and sufferings of 86 new martyrs who suffered from 1492 to 1838. From these lives, 16 Athos martyrs were translated into Russian and placed in the second part of the Athos Patericon, and the lives of the remaining 70 martyrs were translated and published by Fr. P. Solovyov under the title "Christian martyrs who suffered in the East since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks" (St. Petersburg, 1862). Two lives of St. Matrona of Chios and St. John of Zichn. Their memory is conciliarly celebrated on the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost.

Troparion to the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Christ on the Capture of Constantinople Affected , Ch. 3:

New martyrs, / having overthrown the ancient delusion with a firm struggle, / exalting the faith of the Orthodox, / humiliating the lawless service, / boldly preaching Christ, / God is perfect, / and now they pray unceasingly / to grant us great mercy.

Kondak, ch. one:

Rejoice mysteriously, Church of Christ, / seeing your sons, new martyrs, / standing in relics around your meal, / like a new planting of oil, / and the Creator of all cries: / You are the martyrs, Christ, affirmation.

Below, as a supplement, we place other materials on the topic of veneration of the New Martyrs who suffered in the East, since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.

K. Kavarnos

The Significance of the New Martyrs in the Life of the Orthodox Church

I

The question of the significance of the new martyrs in the life of the Orthodox Church is very important. We know about this as from the heritage of the great theologians of the past, such as the educator Eugene Voulgaris (1716-1806) and St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer, and from the heritage of prominent theologians of modern times, for example, the Archbishop of Athens (1923-38) Chrysostom Papadopoulos. Their writings relating to the question of the new martyrs make this question exhaustively clear.

Voulgaris writes a lot about the New Martyrs in his epistle to the French Jansenist Pierre Leclerc. This epistle is called "On the Saints and Miracles of the Orthodox Church after the Schism" (first published by Andreas Koromelas /Athens, 1844/). In this epistle, Voulgaris emphasizes that the Orthodox Church, from the time of the schism (1054) to the present day, has revealed countless martyrs and other saints, equal to the saints of the first centuries. Speaking of their meaning, he notes that the Orthodox Church "grows and is glorified" by them (p. 68). They decorate the Church and work wonders. Eugene lists the most famous new martyrs of that time (pp. 28-31) and says to Leclerc: “Here is just a small fraction of the saints recently revealed among us ... and there are many more” (p. 31). In his enumeration, he first of all names the priest Peter, who suffered for his faith in 1453, shortly after the fall of Constantinople.

Rev. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer and his mentor St. Macarius of Corinth considered the new martyrs so important for the Church—its building and the salvation of its flock—that they compiled and published a voluminous work on the new martyrs: The New Martyrology (third edition /Athens, 1961/). In it they collected the lives of eighty-five new martyrs, from 1492 almost to the year of publication of the book, first published in 1799. The New Martyrology also contains services to some new martyrs.

Rev. Nicodemus wrote a wonderful prologue to this book, in which he analyzes in detail the meaning of the new martyrs. Here he highlights five of the most important aspects, and covers each of them in detail, analyzing the topic of the new martyrs in an amazingly detailed and instructive way, with amazing spiritual depth. Below we will take a closer look at these five aspects and how each of them is revealed by Rev. Nicodemus.

The book of Archbishop Chrysostomos Papadopoulos "The New Martyrs" (third edition /Athens, Tinos Publishing House, 1970/), first published in 1934, is rather brief, but contains a lot of information about the New Martyrs and valuable reflections on their meaning. It contains the lives of one hundred and thirty martyrs, from 1453 to the middle of the 19th century. Here is perhaps the most significant of the statements of Archbishop Chrysostomos about the significance of the new martyrs: “Under the Turkish yoke, in the years after the capture of Constantinople, the Orthodox Church, and Her faithful children, suffered persecution similar to the persecutions of the first centuries of Christianity ... The Church fought for the salvation of her children and the strengthening them in faith. And in this struggle of the Orthodox Church, the new martyrs play a very important role. That is why, annually glorifying their memory, she says: “Like radiant suns in the night of slavery, like unshakable anchors in times of trouble, you shone to the ends of the earth, O holy new martyr, kindling love in the faithful and strengthening hearts wavering in faith” ”( pp. 130-31).

II

Before discussing in more detail the meaning of the new martyrs, let us touch on a few points relating to the martyrs of our Church. This will help us better understand the meaning of the new martyrs.

Martyrs, old and new, belong to one of the categories of saints clearly distinguished in the writings of the Greek Fathers of the Church and the hymnographers. The other five categories are: apostles, prophets, saints, saints and righteous. (Monks and nuns who have attained holiness are called reverend. Lay men and women who have acquired holiness in worldly life, who have not suffered martyrdom, are called righteous. In a broader sense, all saints are called righteous.) It is worth noting that the great ascetic fathers, for example, St. Peter of Damascus (VIII century, see Philokalia of Athena, 1960, vol. 3, p. 51) and St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer (see "The Fourteen Epistles of Paul" Venice, 1819, p. 384), naming six categories of saints, they name the martyrs immediately after the apostles, who are placed first. Often they are named in the same order in church hymns, as, for example, in the following troparion of Oktoeh: as good, pray to be saved, we pray to our souls.

Primacy is given to the apostles and martyrs for the reason that without the preaching of the apostles, Christianity would not have spread in the world, and without the blood of the martyrs, the Orthodox Church would not have been strengthened and would not have lived for centuries.

Each of the six categories of saints I have listed represents a Christian's path to holiness. Those who have gone through the path of martyrdom have become saints. The path of martyrdom is true and perfect repentance, sincere confession before a virtuous and experienced spiritual father, fasting, vigil, unceasing prayer, worthy communion and bold confession of the Orthodox Faith before anti-Christian tyrants and persecutors. The number of martyrs is great and probably reaches tens of thousands. The path of martyrdom, which leads directly to salvation and holiness, if a Christian faithfully follows it to the end, opens only during persecution of Christians and when circumstances call for it. After these preliminary remarks about the martyrs, it is appropriate to talk about the new martyrs before moving on to a detailed analysis of their significance in the life of the Church.

III

All Orthodox Christians who suffered martyrdom for their faith after 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, are called new martyrs to this day. There are thousands and thousands of them. The names and lives of about two hundred of them are known. Among them are men, mostly young, but also old men, monks, priests and bishops, women and children. Of the laity, the New Martyrs George of Chios (†1807) and George of Ioanninsky (†1838) are best known, of the monastics, Hieromartyr Cosmas Aitholos Equal-to-the-Apostles (†1779) and Martyr Philotheos of Athens (†1589). Of the bishops, the most famous is Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople († 1821).

All the New Martyrs whose lives are described by Greek church writers, with rare exceptions, are Greeks. (I am referring to the above-mentioned works of Eugene Voulgaris, Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, St. Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer and St. Macarius of Corinth, as well as the New Limonar by St. Nicephorus of Chios and the Saints of the Orthodox Church by Sophronius Eustratiadis). All of them suffered at the hands of the Turks. In the 20th century, a huge number of new martyrs appeared: Greeks, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs and others. For their Orthodox faith, they suffered terrible torture and death at the hands of godless communists.

IV

So, let us proceed to a more detailed and comprehensive examination of the significance of the new martyrs in the life of the Orthodox Church. In his prologue to the New Martyrology, Ven. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer gives five reasons why God wants "new martyrs to appear in our time."

“Firstly, so that the entire Orthodox faith may be renewed. Secondly, so that those of little faith may not have justification on the Day of Judgment. Thirdly, that the martyrs may serve as the glory and adornment of the Orthodox Church, and as a witness against heretics and their shame. Fourthly, in order to serve as an example of patience for all Orthodox Christians who suffer under the heavy yoke of tyranny, that is, from tyrannical power, such as the Turkish yoke. “And fifthly, so that they instill courage and steadfastness in the hearts of all Christians who are forced by circumstances to accept martyrdom, especially those who were on the verge of apostasy from the Orthodox faith, so that they follow their example.”

Rev. Nicodemus analyzes each of these reasons in detail, thus revealing the significance of the new martyrs. In his prologue to The New Martyrology, he devoted many pages to this topic, but I will cite only the most important provisions.

Here's what Rev. Nicodemus on how the new martyrs serve to renew the Orthodox Faith:

“Modern Christians read in church history about those torments and sufferings that were endured in the name of Christ by Demetrius, George, Theodora and Jacob, the great and glorious martyrs of the first centuries of the Church, who stood unwaveringly in the Faith from the time of Christ to Constantine the Great. They, in the simplicity of their faith, do not doubt the truth of the tradition of the Church about the martyrs, for faith, as the Apostle Paul says, is “a warning of those who trust, of things unseen” (Heb. 11:1). Behind the prescription of the years that have passed since the time of the first martyrs, some, if not disbelief, then at least doubt and confusion may arise. How could they [the martyrs], just weak, infirm people, endure such terrible torments?

And so the new martyrs, raising their voice in the midst of this world, eradicate all such distrust and confusion in the hearts of Christians, instilling and renewing in them unshakable faith in the martyrs of the past. And, just as rain revives trees scorched by drought, as new feathers renew an aging eagle, “your youth will be renewed like an eagle” (as the prophet David says / Psalm 102, 5 /); so these newly-appeared martyrs strengthen and renew the weakened, withered, decayed faith of Christians of our day” (p. 10).

“It is precisely for this reason that today’s Christians do not doubt the deeds of the martyrs of the past, seeing how new Georges, new Demetrius, new Theodoras appear in the world, and not only in name, but in everything similar to the ancient martyrs” (pp. 10-11) .

“Finally, the New Martyrs renew the preaching of Sts. apostles. They testify to the truth of the Holy Gospel and the Divinity of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, consubstantial with His Beginningless Father, and proclaim the great sacrament of the Holy Trinity. In other words, they seal the Orthodox Faith of Christians, and not only with words, but with the terrible torments they endured, with their blood and martyrdom.”

Turning to the second aspect of the significance of the new martyrs for the Orthodox Church, St. Nicodemus emphasizes the missionary role they play for the Gentiles. In this regard, it should be especially noted that the Orthodox Church has always carried out missionary work in the Byzantine era, and later, to the present day. The New Martyrs are, in their own way, one of the most important missionaries of the post-Byzantine era. Here is how Rev. Nicodemus: “Almost all the new martyrs, who were born and raised among many infidels, testified with great boldness before their rulers and judges that the Christian Faith is right and true. They firmly confessed Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the true God, the Wisdom and the Word of God, through whom all things were made (John 1:3). And this confession they testified not only with their blood, but rather with many miracles that God did through them, both during their torment and after their death” (pp. 11-12).

The third important aspect of the significance of the new martyrs for the life of the Orthodox Church, according to St. Nicodemus, this is that they represent the shame and refutation of heresies, and evidence of the truth of the Orthodox Church. He says: “These new martyrs are the glory and praise of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the disgrace of the non-Orthodox, for, apart from other slander that the enemies have spouted against the Church, they also slander that no new saints or martyrs have appeared in it.

May they be ashamed when they see in this book [The New Martyrology] that the Eastern Orthodox Church follows the right path and has grown not with one, not two, not three, but a host of new martyrs. (We do not touch on the newly-appeared venerable fathers who shone at different times in the new time of the Eastern Orthodox Church, for the purpose of this work is different). These new martyrs stand on an equal footing with the martyrs of antiquity, not inferior to them either in the boldness of confessing the faith before tyrants, or in the manifested signs and wonders. They are equal in everything to the martyrs of the first centuries.”

Talking about the future of Rev. Nicodemus expresses confidence that the Orthodox Church will continue to produce new martyrs until the end of the world. And this is true, for Christ, the Bridegroom of the Orthodox Church, lives and always abides in unity with His Bride (the Church), according to His promise: “And lo, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age. Amen” (Matt. 28:20).

This refutes the false assertions of the non-Orthodox—Romans and Protestants—that the Orthodox have no new saints and martyrs. This confirms that the Orthodox Church is "the treasury of the grace of the Holy Spirit and that her dogmas are divine and right." For, continues the Rev. Nicodemus, “A mother is known by her child, as a tree is known by its fruit” (p. 14).

The fourth aspect of the significance of the new martyrs according to St. Nicodemus, as we have already mentioned, this is an example of patience, which they are. He says this about it:

“These new martyrs are examples of patience for all Orthodox who suffer under the yoke of tyranny. I am silent, let the martyrs themselves speak. So what do they say?

"O our beloved and dear brothers, the chosen people of our Lord Jesus Christ, in your misfortunes, learn long-suffering from us, your brothers. Courageously enduring torment from the unbelievers, we have inherited the Kingdom of Eternity and are numbered among the holy martyrs of antiquity. And if, in the name of Christ, endure with gratitude, beatings, imprisonment, penal servitude, deprivation, unbearable taxes and other torments to which the authorities subject you, as voluntary martyrs, draw near to God. A person does not become a martyr because he is beheaded, but when he expresses his determination to accept martyrdom, even if he does not suffer a martyr's death "” (In other words, martyrdom is not just death at the hands of tormentors, but a conscious intention to suffer for the faith, even if it was not crowned with martyrdom).

Rev. Nicodemus continues, speaking through the lips of the new martyrs: “So, if you become voluntary martyrs, then you will be numbered with us, and move into bright and spacious monasteries, into cloisters of peace and joy” (p. 14).

The new martyrs give many instructions to Christians who are under the yoke of tyranny. In this short article, I will give only the most instructive provisions:

“Remember that our Lord Christ, Who let you go like sheep in the midst of wild beasts, commanded you to be wise like snakes (Matt. 10:16). Why is that? Because, just as a snake seeks to hide and save its head before the other members, so that the enemy does not crush it, so you, brethren, quickly abandon all your possessions and become poor; it is better to lose life itself than to retreat at least a little from your holy faith and renounce the sweetest name of Christ and our God, Who alone is our Head, Glory and Salvation in this age and the age to come.

However, in order to acquire firmness in faith, it is fitting to lead a Christian life in faith, doing good deeds. For, just as a righteous and holy faith gives birth and strengthens a righteous and holy life, so a holy life gives birth and strengthens a holy faith, and both complement one another, as Chrysostom said. And we see that those who are corrupted by a life full of impurity, passions and vices, reject Christ or fall into destructive delusions.

If you lead a Christian life, then you will not only keep the Orthodox Faith, you will not only be saved from blasphemy against the holy name and the Faith of Christ, ... but encourage the unbelievers to turn to it when they see the light of your good deeds, as the Lord said: “So let it be enlightened your light before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Rev. Nicodemus goes on to talk about the importance for Christians of suffering for Christ, not just believing in Him. He says: “Remember, brethren, that, as the Apostle Paul says, we Christians are granted not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for Christ: suffer for Him” (Philippians 1:29).

Do you see, beloved, that you endure beatings, prisons, fetters, losses, reproach, deprivation of property and other cruel misfortunes not only for your transgressions, but for faith and in the name of Christ? Do you see that all this is a blessing? What are these grace gifts and honors? They keep you from every kind of transgression. These sufferings purify and enlighten you, just as fire purifies and enlightens gold “as gold in the furnace tempt them” (Wisdom 3, 6). They show you that you are true, unfalse children and disciples of Jesus Christ; lawful children of him. “Who is the son, who is not punished by the father?” (Heb. 12:7). Simply put, by these sufferings you are glorified with Christ and in Christ “for we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17). Grace-filled gifts are acquired by them, "their eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and it has not arisen in the heart of man" (1 Cor. 2, 9).

Now we come to the fifth and final meaning of the new martyrs for today's Orthodox Christians. Rev. Nicodemus talks a lot about this. This meaning lies in the fact that the new martyrs "set an example of courage and steadfastness for all Christians who are forced by circumstances to accept martyrdom, especially for those who were on the verge of apostasy from the Orthodox faith" (p. 10).

And again Rev. Nicodemus speaks on behalf of the new martyrs: “If it happens that the unbelievers envy you, slander you, harm you, or in other ways force you to reject Christ and accept their faith, beware, O sweet brethren, for the sake of the love of Christ, who redeemed us with the blood His. Beware for the priceless salvation of your souls. Beware of departing from your Orthodox faith and accepting their [heretical] faith.”

“Do not be blind, and do not prefer darkness to light, falsehood to truth, hell to heaven, damnation to Paradise. Never depart from the holy faith, which turns believers from people into angels, from inhabitants of the earth into inhabitants of heaven, from beings of the flesh into sons of God by grace, heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven” (p. 18).

“And yet, brethren, never yield or reject the most humble and sweetest Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and God, even if they subject you to many torments ... For denying Christ with a single word or a simple nod separates you from His Kingdom and dooms you to eternal suffering...

In this, imitate us [the new martyrs], who have not renounced our faith by a single word...

Do not be afraid of torment, for they only kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, and, on the contrary, give it life. The Lord Himself encourages you, saying: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul" (Matt. 10:28).

Shall I tell you, brethren, what you should be afraid of? Rejecting Christ and not confessing Him openly. Here is the only one worthy of fear. For if you reject Christ, alas! Christ will reject you on Judgment Day. For, as He Himself says: “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him and I before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33). (pp. 20-21).

Words that Rev. Nicodemus puts into the mouths of the new martyrs faithfully convey the spirit (phronema) of the new martyrs—the spirit of their thoughts and words. Rev. Nicodemus knew some of them personally, and himself led them on the path of martyrdom. So is St. Macarius, mentor of Rev. Nicodemus and co-author of The New Martyrology, knew many of the new martyrs intimately and prepared them for martyrdom. They took refuge in his hermitage on the island of Chios, seeking his guidance, for they considered him a saint. Macarius left them in the skete for many days, instructed, encouraged, confessed, taught fasting, vigil and prayer. We know from the life of St. Macarius, written by his friend, the great teacher of the faith Athanasius Parios, the names of three new martyrs who were his students: Polydor of Cyprus, Demetrius of Peloponnese and Theodore of Byzantium. The lives of Polydorus and Theodore of Byzantium and services for them are included in the New Martyrology. St. Macarius probably compiled their lives, while the services were compiled by St. Nicodemus.

The last passage from the New Martyrology, written on behalf of the new martyrs, is connected precisely with these three martyrs. It mentions the renunciation of Christ. The fact is that all three of these martyrs converted to the Muslim faith, but then changed their minds and experienced pangs of conscience because of the renunciation of Christ. Remembering the words of the Savior, “Whoever rejects Me before men, I will also reject him before My Father who is in heaven,” they sought to accept martyrdom in order to atone for their sin. Just as they rejected Christ before the Turks, so they should firmly confess before them their faith in Christ and endure any torment and death itself for their bold confession. That is exactly what they did.

Those five meanings of the new martyrs for the life of the Greek Orthodox Church, which are given by St. Nicodemus help us understand the miraculous steadfastness of the Greek people in Orthodoxy, despite centuries of persecution by the Turks.

V

We can add a few more meanings to the named prep. Nicodemus. One of them, very important, is the holy relics of the new martyrs, valued by the faithful of the Orthodox Church more than gold, for they heal ailments of the body and soul, especially those that are beyond the control of medicine. The most important recent example of this is the relics of the recently found new martyrs from Thermi (Lesvos Island): Raphael, Nicholas and Irina. Their relics were found thirty years ago during excavations. Pious Christians who have read the book The Great Sign by Blessed Photius Kontoglu and other books on this subject have no doubts about the authenticity of the relics, although in the case of finding ancient relics doubts often arise, as, for example, they doubt the authenticity of the head of the Apostle Andrew, transferred by the Greek Vatican Church about 25 years ago. In general, since the new martyrs are not so distant from us in time and the information about their martyrdom is much more abundant and reliable than the information about the martyrs of antiquity, there is usually no doubt about the authenticity of their relics.

In addition, the New Martyrs inspired the leading church writers and hymnographers to create deeply repentant and very soulful compositions. An example of this are the works cited above: "The New Martyrology" of Sts. Macarius of Corinth and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and "New Limonar" of St. Nikephoros of Chios. These books contain both the lives of many new martyrs and services for many of them.

These writings not only enriched Orthodox hagiography and liturgy, but also served to bring new ascetics to Orthodoxy, inspired by the examples of the glorified New Martyrs.

Services to the new martyrs are collected by inspired examples of glorified new martyrs.

Services to the new martyrs, collected in the "New Martyrology", "New Limonar" and other works, constitute the poetic and musical part of their life. In these services, we glorify the God-bearing new martyrs with sublime verses and their corresponding rhythm and melody. We glorify them for their courageous witness to Orthodoxy and the virtues they have shown.

The New Martyrs, like all other saints, do not need our glorification. They are already glorified and rewarded by the Most High, and are with Him in eternal divine glory and grace. However, we should glorify them, so that through the example of faith, long-suffering and asceticism of the saints, we are imbued with love for their virtues and strive to acquire them ourselves.

In the same way, the new martyrs contribute to the decoration of the Church with new icons with their images and new churches consecrated in their honor. The best icons depicting the New Martyrs are the icons of St. Cosmas of Aitolos, St. George of Ioanninsky, and the newly acquired saints of Fermia: Raphael, Nicholas and Irina.

Icons and churches dedicated to the New Martyrs, their lives and services not only enrich and adorn the Orthodox Church and serve as examples of virtue, they also remind us that not only many Christians of the first centuries followed the path of martyrdom, but also many Christians of modern times.

The icons of the new martyrs speak in a clear, understandable language: modern clothes, purity of the face, a halo of holiness above their heads and a cross, a symbol of martyrdom, in their right hand - all this tells us that, having accepted martyrdom, they became vessels of divine grace, cleansed of all sins and sanctified. The well-known dismissive troparion (apolytikion) in honor of the holy martyrs tells us about this with appropriate exaltation: “Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their suffering have received crowns from Thee our God: Save our souls with prayers."

From this hymn we learn that, having endured martyrdom, the martyrs received from God the power by which they defeated their tormentors, who forced them to renounce the faith and confounded the impudent demonic temptation to humble themselves in the face of power. It also tells us that all martyrs, old and new, pray to God for the salvation of our souls. And this is very important, because, as the apostle James writes, “the prayer of a righteous man can make great haste” (James 5:16). With this in mind, pious Christians unite with martyrs, both old and new, with their love, which the apostle Paul calls "the cohesion of perfection" (Col. 3:14), and with the reverence they show them.

Translation prepared by br. Alexander in the city of St. Peter, Russia

"Orthodox Life" (Supplement to "Orthodox Russia"), No. 2 (590), February 1999, Ch. 1-12.

***

Letter from Rev. Athanasius of Pariah († 1813) to one student regarding veneration of the New Martyrs before their glorification

Beloved in Christ, my brother, rejoice in the Lord!

1. You wrote to me that recently, on the feast day of St. John the Theologian, you and your friends had a conversation about the New Martyrs, and that some of them, not only ignorant, but also scientists, argued that the holy martyrs cannot be venerated without the permission of the Great Church, and you seemed to want to object, but were embarrassed, afraid no matter how true their words are. You write that you wrote this to me so that I would laugh, but I did not laugh at it because, although those who express such judgments are worthy of laughter, the topic itself is not funny, but decent and holy. Therefore, I was more upset; I was especially upset that educated people speak as unlearned and illiterate. Where did these “scholars” read about this, and where is it heard in the Church of God that the holy martyrs expect an earthly judgment on their martyrdom, that this earthly judgment testifies about those who sealed their end by confessing the holy faith and whom the ascetic Christ immediately and immediately worthy of a heavenly crown?

2. What else is a holiday, if not pleasing, glorifying and honoring the celebrated saint, if not the desire to have him before God as our intercessor and intercessor, in order to receive from God the healing of your soul from passions? What else can be a holiday, besides this? Probably these wise men, in order not to call them by any dissonant name, have never heard that as soon as the head of the martyr falls to the ground, the Christians present at the same time, rejoicing with all their heart and soul, glorifying God and pleasing the martyr, with extreme reverence divide between his bloodied clothes and even the ropes with which he was bound or hung. Even the land that was stained with his blood, Christians take and keep with all honor, wanting to have ready help in their needs.

3. And all this is done by Christians everywhere, and they honor, and glorify, and honor the victim without any official permission from the Great Church. Therefore, these "scientists" are talking the same nonsense as the unlearned.

The more knowledge they have, the more laugh they deserve when they repeat the opinions of the unlearned. This ecclesiastical permission is required and given, brother, only in relation to the saints, whose holiness is not known to everyone. The Church, having made an accurate inquiry and convinced from the life and miracles of the saint that God glorified him, assures all Christians with her church authority that such and such a father is holy and anyone who wishes can freely celebrate his memory. In addition, read in the Tomos of Love the speech of Patriarch Philotheus about St. Gregory Palamas, and you will learn from there that he, as Patriarch of Constantinople, decrees that the monks of his monastery freely celebrate the memory of Gregory before the conciliar decision. And they not only celebrated his memory, as he says, but also brought his icon to the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy in the great church, even before he was canonized by the Church. After all, those who celebrated the memory of reverend men and women, since they knew andx [during life] as saints, were not condemned as violators of the law.

4. Will these most unlearned people thus prevent them from giving the victorious, divine and holy martyrs immediately and on the spot their due and proper honor? And don't these fools really think that it is not only fair - and in the highest degree fair - to honor and celebrate the memory of those who have worked well, but that it is also very useful, since such veneration warms the souls of believers and encourages them to imitate. To confirm the truth of what has been said, one does not have to go far and look for where the memory of the New Martyrs is celebrated without the official permission of the Great Church. Even today in the church of St. George is celebrated in memory of the martyr Theophilos of Zakynthos, whose service was composed immediately after his death by the wisest George Coressius, during whose days this martyr suffered. After him, Nikita Nizirsky subsequently suffered, and the teacher Athanasius Iviritis, who was also Lindossky, who was present at his death, who became an eyewitness to his exploits, immediately composed a service for him and for many years then celebrated the day of his memory in the church of St. Nicholas "in the Swamp", as many people worthy of trust testify to this. I marvel at your reverend that you did not give these examples to silence those who speak contrary to the truth. After all, they are incompetent in relation to the canonical church order in comparison with those wisest men whom I mentioned, i.e. compared to Coressius and Athanasius. Your friend, who dares to say that those who have renounced the faith, but atoned for their sin with the blood of martyrs, speaks out in the same way with this absurdity, are not martyrs. But, as it seems, those who think so, dismiss the judgment of the Universal Church, and, being depraved, want to affirm only their own opinion. Is it possible, in their opinion, that neither James of Persia, nor Meirax of Egypt, nor Pancharius of Rome and countless other martyrs are saints, and the Church does not know what she is doing? May he not see the glory of the martyrs who deprives the martyrs of divine glory!

All this I have written to you now because you have told me about what happened to you. I have written and spoken much on this subject before.

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May 18 (New Style) The Orthodox Church honors the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Irina. Irina, a Slav by birth, lived in the second half of the 1st century and was the daughter of the pagan Licinius, the ruler of the city of Mageddon in Macedonia, so they began to call Saint Irene of Macedonia.
She was given the name "Penelope" at birth. When Penelope began to grow up and she was 6 years old, she seemed to be unusually beautiful in face, so that she overshadowed all her peers with her appearance. Licinius assigned to his daughter the old woman Caria as a teacher. Licinius also instructed an old man named Apelian to teach her book wisdom. Penelope's father did not know that Apelian was a secret Christian. So the girl spent six years and three months, and when she was 12 years old, her father began to think about whom to marry her daughter to.
One day, when the girl was sitting in her room, a dove flew into her through an open window facing the east, holding a small branch in its beak; placing it on the table, he immediately flew out of the room through the window. Then, an hour later, an eagle flew into the room with a wreath of different flowers, and he also, putting the wreath on the table, immediately flew away. Then a raven flew in through another window, carrying a small snake in its beak, which he laid on the table, and he also flew away.
Seeing all this, the maiden, together with her teacher, were very surprised, wondering what this arrival of birds foreshadowed? When the teacher Apelian came to them, they told him about what had happened.
Apelian explained it this way:
- Know, my daughter, that the dove means your good disposition, your meekness, humility and girlish chastity. The branch of the olive tree signifies God's grace, which will be given to you through baptism. The eagle, soaring high, depicts itself as a king and a conqueror, it marks that you will reign over your passions and, exalted by thought of God, will defeat invisible enemies, as an eagle defeats birds. A wreath of flowers is a sign of retribution that you will receive for your deeds from the King of Christ in His heavenly kingdom, where an incorruptible crown of eternal glory is being prepared for you. A raven with a snake marks the enemy-devil, who is trying to inflict sorrow, sorrow and persecution on you. Know, girl, that the great King, who holds heaven and earth in His power, wants to betroth you into His bride, and you will endure many sufferings for His name.

Saint Panteleimon (Panteleimon), often called "Panteleimon the Healer", was born in the 3rd century in the city of Nicomedia (now Izmit, Turkey) into a noble pagan family and was named Pantoleon. Pantoleon's mother was a Christian, but she died early and did not have time to raise her son in the Christian faith. Pantoleon was sent by his father to a pagan school, after which he began to study the art of medicine from the famous physician Euphrosynus and became known to Emperor Maximian, who wanted to see him at his court.
Saint Ermolai, who lived in Nicodemea, told Pantoleon about Christianity. Once a young man saw a dead child on the street, bitten by a snake that was still nearby. Pantoleon began to pray to Christ for the resurrection of the dead and the killing of the poisonous reptile. He firmly decided that if his prayer was fulfilled, he would be baptized. The child came to life, and the snake shattered into pieces in front of Pantoleon.
St. Ermolai baptized Pantoleon under the name Panteleimon - "all-merciful" (it is the spelling "Panteleimon" that is canonical in Orthodoxy, the variant of the name with "y" is a secular version of this name). Panteleimon's father, seeing how he healed the blind man, was also baptized.

Conversation of St. Panteleimon and St. Ermolai

Saint Panteleimon devoted his life to healing the sick, including prisoners, among whom were Christians. The fame of a wonderful doctor who did not take money for treatment spread throughout the city and the rest of the doctors were left without work. Embittered doctors reported to the emperor that Panteleimon was treating Christian prisoners. Emperor Maximian demanded that Panteleimon renounce his faith and sacrifice to idols. The saint suggested to the emperor that he summon an incurable patient and arrange a test to see who would heal him: he or the pagan priests. The pagan priests could not heal the patient, and Panteleimon, by the power of prayer, granted the patient healing, proving the true Christian faith and the falsity of paganism.

Almost everyone knows what "Valentine's Day" is, but few know the history of Saint Valentine himself. This article will examine the origin of the legend of St. Valentine, as well as images of this saint, including his Orthodox icons.

On February 14, Catholicism celebrates the day of memory of three saints at once: Valentine of Rome, Valentine - Bishop of Interamna, and Valentine from the Roman province of Africa. Almost nothing is known about the third, the first two are possibly the same person. In connection with this confusion, in 1969 the Catholic Church excluded Valentine from the universal Roman calendar (lat. Calendarium Romanae Ecclesiae) - a list of those saints whose memory is obligatory for liturgical veneration by all Catholics. At the same time, the name of Valentine remained in the Catholic Martyrology - a list of saints, the decision to honor which is made at the level of local churches. In the Russian Orthodox Church, the day of memory of Valentine of Interamnsky is celebrated on August 12, and the day of memory of Valentine of Rome is celebrated on July 19 (both dates are according to the new style).

On December 7, the Russian Orthodox Church honors the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria (287 - 305).

Catherine was the daughter of the ruler of Alexandria of Egypt, Constas, during the reign of Emperor Maximian (305 - 313). Living in the capital - the center of Hellenic learning, Catherine, who had a rare beauty and intelligence, received an excellent education, having studied the works of the best ancient philosophers and scientists.

Carlo Dolci. Saint Catherine of Alexandria reading a book

In Christianity, several saints bearing the name of Paraskeva are revered. In Russian Orthodoxy, the holy martyr of the 3rd century Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa is most revered (the memory is celebrated on November 10). Among the Orthodox in Bulgaria and Serbia, another saint named Paraskeva is popular, called "Petka" in these countries. The memory of St. Paraskeva-Petka is celebrated on October 27. In Russian Orthodoxy, Saint Petka is called Serbian or Bulgarian Paraskeva.

St. Petka (Paraskeva Bulgarian / Serbian)

Jerome is a Christian saint revered in Catholicism (commemoration day on September 30) and in Orthodoxy (commemoration day on June 28). The main merit of Saint Jerome is the translation of the Old Testament into Latin and the edition of the Latin version of the New Testament. The Latin Bible, created by Jerome and called the Vulgate, is the canonical Latin text of the Bible to this day. Saint Jerome is considered the heavenly patron of all translators.

Jerome was born around 340-2 years (according to other sources, in 347) in the Roman province of Dalmatia, in the city of Stridon (not far from the place where the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, is now located). Jerome went to study in the capital of the empire - Rome, where he was baptized in the period from 360 to 366. Jerome studied under the well-known grammarian Aelius Donatus, a specialist in ancient and Christian literature. Continuing his studies, Jerome traveled a lot. In the Syrian city of Antioch in the winter of 373-374, Jerome fell seriously ill and had a vision that forced him to abandon secular studies and devote himself to God. Jerome retired to the Chalkis desert in Syria, where he began to study the language of the Jews in order to read the biblical texts in the original. Jerome returned to Antioch in 378 or 379, where he was ordained a bishop. Later, Jerome leaves for Constantinople, and then returns to Rome. In the capital of the empire, Jerome won great confidence from famous noble women of Rome: Paula, the same age as Jerome, and her daughters Blazilla and Eustochia, under the influence of Jerome, abandoned their aristocratic lifestyle and became ascetics.

On September 30, the Orthodox Church honors the memory of the holy martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their mother Sophia, who suffered in Rome under the emperor Hadrian (2nd century AD).

Saint Sophia, a firm Christian, managed to raise her daughters in ardent love for God. The rumor about the virtue, mind and beauty of the girls reached the emperor Hadrian, who wished to see them, having learned that they were Christians.

Adrian called all three sisters in turn and affectionately urged them to sacrifice to the goddess Artemis, but received a firm refusal from all and consent to endure all the torments for Jesus Christ.

Vera was 12 years old, Nadezhda - 10 and Lyubov - 9. In front of their mother, they were tortured in turn. Vera was beaten mercilessly and her breasts were cut off, but instead of blood, milk flowed from the wound. Then they laid her on a hot iron. The mother prayed with her daughter and strengthened her in suffering - and the iron did not burn Vera. Being thrown into a cauldron of boiling tar, Vera prayed loudly to the Lord and remained unharmed. Then Adrian ordered to cut off her head.

Nadezhda and Lyubov were tortured and killed next.

To prolong the torment of his mother, the emperor did not torture her, he gave her the tormented bodies of three girls. Sophia put them in an ark and buried them with honors on a high hill outside the city. For three days the mother sat at the grave of her daughters and finally gave her soul to the Lord. Believers buried her body in the same place.

The relics of Saints Faith, Hope, Love and Sophia rest in Alsace, in the church of Esho.

Tatyana Rimskaya (in Church Slavonic Tatiana) is a holy martyr, whose memory in Orthodoxy is honored on January 25.

Tatiana was born in Rome to a noble family. Her father was elected consul three times, he was a secret Christian and raised his daughter in the Christian faith. When Tatiana came of age, she decided not to marry and be the bride of Christ. Tatyana's piety became known in Christian circles and she was chosen as a deaconess (the duties of a deaconess consisted of visiting sick women and caring for them, preparing women for baptism, "serving the presbyters in the baptism of women for decency", etc.). In 222, Alexander Severus became emperor. He was the son of a Christian woman and did not persecute Christians. However, the emperor was only 16 years old and all power was concentrated in the hands of Ulpian, who fiercely hated Christians. Christians began to be persecuted. Tatyana was also captured. She was brought into the temple of Apollo and forced to bow to his statue. She prayed to the true God and the idol of Apollo fell and broke, along with it a part of the temple collapsed.

Tatyana began to be tortured. The author of the life of St. Tatiana, Dmitry Rostovsky writes about it this way:
“At first they began to beat her in the face and torment her eyes with iron hooks. After a long torment, the tormentors themselves became exhausted, for the body of Christ’s sufferer was hard for those who inflicted wounds on her, like an anvil, and the tormentors themselves accepted the torment more than the holy martyr. And angels stood invisibly near the saint and struck blows at those who tormented Saint Tatiana, so that the tormentors appealed to the lawless judge and asked him to order an end to the torment, they said that they themselves suffered more than this holy and innocent virgin. , courageously enduring suffering, she prayed for her tormentors and asked the Lord to reveal to them the light of truth. And her prayer was heard. Heavenly light illuminated the tormentors, and their spiritual eyes were opened ". Eight executioners who tortured Tatiana converted to Christianity and were executed for it.

The next day, Tatyana was again tortured (she was healed from past tortures). They began to cut Tatyana's body, but milk poured out of the wounds.
“Then they spread her crosswise on the ground and beat her with rods for a long time, so that the tormentors grew weak and often changed. For, as before, the angels of God stood invisibly near the saint and inflicted wounds on those who inflicted blows on the holy martyr. that someone is striking them with iron sticks. Finally, nine of them died, struck by the right hand of an angel, and the rest fell to the ground barely alive.
The next day, Tatyana was persuaded to make a sacrifice to the goddess Diana. She prayed to the true God and fire fell from heaven, scorching the statue, the temple and many pagans.

Natalia is a female name formed in the first centuries of Christianity from lat. Natalis Domini - birth, Christmas. The meaning of the name "Natalia" is Christmas. Of the bearers of this name in Orthodoxy, the most famous is St. Natalia of Nicomedia, whose memorial day falls on September 8th. Saint Natalia is venerated along with her husband, Saint Adrian.
Adrian and Natalia lived in Bithynian Nicomedia under the emperor Maximian (305-311). Adrian was a pagan, and Natalia was a secret Christian. When their marriage was one year and one month old, Adrian, as the head of the judicial chamber of Nicomedia, was instructed by the emperor to draw up protocols of interrogations of 23 Christians arrested on the denunciation of pagans in caves where they secretly prayed. The martyrs were severely beaten, but did not renounce Christ. Adrian wanted to know why Christians suffer so much and they told him about faith in eternal life and in divine retribution. This faith entered the heart of Adrian, he converted to Christianity and himself entered himself into the list of arrested Christians. Natalia, having learned about this, was delighted, because now her husband shared her secret faith. Natalia went to prison and began to beg Adrian to courageously accept the crown of martyrdom for the sake of Christ. She cared for Christians crippled by torture, alleviating their suffering. When Adrian was released home so that he would tell his wife about the day of his execution, she at first did not want to let him into the house, thinking that he had renounced Christ. On the day of the execution, Natalia, fearing that Adrian might hesitate at the sight of the suffering and death of other martyrs, asked the executioners to begin the execution with her husband and herself laid his feet on the anvil. When Adrian's legs were broken, Natalia put his hand under the blow of the hammer. The executioner cut her off with a strong blow and Adrian died. He was 28 years old. Natalia secretly took her husband's hand and hid it. Maximian, having executed all the Christians in prison, ordered the bodies of the martyrs to be burned. But by the will of God, a strong thunderstorm began, and many of the tormentors were killed by lightning. The rain extinguished the burning furnace, and the Christians were able to take out the bodies of the saints, undamaged by fire, from the furnace. A pious Christian named Eusebius collected the remains of the saints and brought them to the city of Argyropol near Byzantium. The emperor wanted to give Natalia as a wife to a noble commander, then Natalia took the hand of Adrian and went on a ship to Argyropol. The commander, having learned about Natalia's escape, pursued her on the ship, but got into a storm and turned the ship back, while many of those sailing on it drowned, and the ship with the Christians bypassed the storm. They were saved by Adrian, appearing to them in a radiance of light. Upon arrival in Argyropol, Natalia came to the temple with the bodies of the martyrs and connected Adrian's hand with his body. On the same day the sufferer died.
Natalia, despite her bloodless death and the fact that she was not subjected to bodily torture, was counted among the martyrs for her boundless compassion for her husband and other martyrs.

The modern name Audrey (Audrey) comes from the Old English name Ethelfrita (option - Edilfrida) (Aethelthryth, aethele - noble, excellent, excellent + thryth - power, power, strength). In the Latinized form, the name sounded like Etheldreda (Etheldreda, Etheldred). The German forms of the same name are Edeltraud, Edeltrud.
The name "Etheldreda" entered history thanks to the saint who bore this name.

Saint Audrey (Etheldreda) on a stained-glass window in the church of Saint Leonard (Horringer community, England)

Saint Etheldreda (Saint Audrey) was born in 630 at Exning, the seat of the East Angles, in western Suffolk. She was the daughter of Anna, the future king of the East Angles Land. She was baptized by the apostle of East Anglia, St. Felix. While still a young girl, Etheldreda, thanks to the influence of St. Felix, as well as his friend and associate St. Aidan and the latter's disciple, the future abbess Ilda (Hilda), experienced a strong attraction to the monastic life. However, in 652 she was married to a nobleman from the "Low Country" (located on the border of the current counties of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire). As a dowry, Etheldreda received the city of Ely and the island on which it was located.

In 655 her husband died; they probably never got married. Contrary to her hopes for the beginning of a monastic feat in Ely, in 660 she was again forced to marry for political reasons, this time to the 15-year-old king of Northumbria, thus becoming the queen of this country.

King Herod took up arms against Christ, not wanting to share his earthly power with anyone, not wanting to give up his “I” even in the face of Divine destiny, for he knew the Scriptures, studied it with the help of the elders and scribes, and knew when and where he should be born Christ. But, despite this, and only using the knowledge gained for his own purposes, Herod plunged into the darkness of sin even more and sent soldiers to beat 14,000 Bethlehem babies under the age of two years. This inhuman malice, of course, came not only from Herod, it came from hell itself, for this is how hell met the birth of Christ. The infernal forces, sensing that their power with the appearance of the Savior into the world would be bound and limited, in their powerless anger took up arms against the most weak and innocent, namely, babies. If ordinary people, shepherds, and learned people who thirsted for the truth, the Magi - were looking for the Born Christ, longing for salvation, then they were the first to meet him and bow to him. But Herod acted differently: having learned that Christ was born, and thereby even confessing that He is the Christ and the King of the Jews, having authority from Heaven, set out to destroy Him. This event still shocks every person who reads the Holy Gospel.

What, brothers and sisters, is the connection of this event with our time? After all, the Gospel of the Lord is not some kind of historical book that only describes certain events that occurred long before our days. This Book is the Divine Word that pervades the past, present and future. And those events or symbols that are depicted through the Word of God are important not only for the past, but also for the present and for the future.

The Bethlehem babies became the first martyrs for Christ, shedding their innocent blood for the Savior of the world. Although they became martyrs unconsciously, this happened according to the Providence of God.

You know what a terrible time this is. Many of us think - and perhaps correctly assume - that our times are the last. When the cup of the Lord's wrath will be poured out, we do not know. But the moral decline that we are seeing today is appalling. If an Orthodox Christian opens his heart to God's truth, and opens his eyes to the world around him, then he will see: what the holy fathers predicted, what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself predicted, is being fulfilled. In the Gospel of Matthew, He says that in the last times, because of the multiplication of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold. It is through this multiplication of lawlessness that the satanic freezing cold breaks into our world more and more, which freezes not only the human mind, but even the hearts that should be the hottest, most loving, most reverent in relation to children - the hearts of mothers. They become icy, stone, insensible, and the mind is darkened because the heart no longer feels and does not understand the truth. Now the truth is being replaced by the proclamation of a woman's right to kill her child. This is a terrible distortion not only of any logic - Divine and human, but it is also a clouding of the human mind. How can a mother condemn her own child to death? We read in the Gospel: "Rachel weeps for her children and does not want to be comforted, for they are not" (Matthew 2:18). And many of us, brothers and sisters, weep for our children, whom we ourselves have killed. But sometimes you can see how Christians who come to confession confess their sin with indifference, and even add: they say, everyone does this, “what to do, such a life was.” What a terrible petrified insensibility! If we, Orthodox Christians, treat this most terrible sin of all that has ever been committed by man, because it was by the shedding of infantile blood that the devil met Christ on earth, then what can we say about other people ...

The Gospel of Matthew describes how on the Mount of Beatitudes the Lord taught His disciples, His people, the Beatitudes. And after that He turned to them, the future Christian community, and said: "You are the salt of the earth." This means that Christ said to you and me: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its potency, how will you make it salty? She is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled by people ”(Matthew 5, 13). Then the Savior told the Christians: “You are the light of the world. A city on top of a mountain cannot hide. And having lighted a candle, they do not put it under a vessel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). What kind of our good deeds does the surrounding pagan world see, which in many ways does not know the truth, but in relation to its children it still retains the law of conscience? After all, many nations do not think about killing children, they give birth as many as God sends, and the Lord blesses them already because they did not come into contact with the sin of Herod. What is going on in our families? Husbands often drink, sons debauchery, women do not obey their husbands and do not want to give birth to children. Parents do not give their children a good example of the Christian, Gospel life. Heretics and even Gentiles are sometimes ahead of us in piety. They err in the most important thing - in the Truth, but they keep the law of their heart. People of many faiths maintain a clear hierarchy of moral values. We have largely lost it. What has our Holy Orthodox Faith become for us? In setting candles on a candlestick. But there is no crying, no contrition of the heart, no change in our life with you. But what is the most important thing for us in this life? The main thing is to know that God is merciful and He calls us to repentance.

Even through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord called us: "... Learn to do good" (Is. 1, 17). And then he said: “Come, and let us reason… If your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; if they are as red as purple, they will be as white as a wave” (Isaiah 1:18). This is what the Lord calls us to - to repentance, to purification. You and I must learn to do good, to shine around us, and not to stink and not to spread temptation. We must truly be the salt of the earth. And if we wallow in sins, we will perish and be condemned even more than pagans or non-believers.

Brothers and sisters, I call on all of you with the love of Christ to correct our lives, and not just in words, but in deeds. So that each of us in his place - in the family, at work, at school - would truly be a real Christian, and not a "pious" fanatic, and anyone who came into contact with a Christian would understand that he is a Christian. So that our life really becomes "salt", so that we are salt in the eyes of God. And as the Lord said: "Salt is a good thing." So let's, brothers and sisters, become for the Lord and for the world around us "a good thing." Amen.

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Three main statements are made in Jesus' words:

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1. In this world, Christ will create the Church.
2. His Church will be heavily attacked.
3. Devil attacks cannot destroy it.

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Looking back at the history of Christianity, we see that the words of Christ have been fulfilled in every century - a glorious history confirms this. First, the existence of the true Church of Christ. Secondly, leaders at various levels of secular or religious power and their subordinates used force and cunning, lies and betrayal, threatened and persecuted the true Church. Third, the Church was tested and testified of Christ during every attack against her. Her messages through the storms of rage and hatred are full of glory, her story is written in this book so that glory be given to Christ for the miraculous work of God, so that knowledge of the experiences of the martyrs of the Church has a beneficial effect on readers and strengthens their Christian faith.

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Jesus

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Jesus Christ Himself was the first to suffer for the Church - not a martyr, of course, but the inspirer and primary source of martyrdom. The history of His suffering and crucifixion is so well described in Holy Scripture that there is no need to write about it here. Suffice it to say that His subsequent resurrection shocked the intentions of the Jews and gave courage and new direction to the hearts of His disciples. And after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the faith and fearlessness that they needed so much to preach His name. The new confidence and boldness of the disciples completely stunned the Jewish leaders and astonished all who heard of them.

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Stephen

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The second to suffer and die for the Church was Stephen, whose name means "crown, crown" (Acts 6:8). He was martyred for preaching the gospel to the people who killed Jesus. What he said enraged these people so much that they immediately seized him and dragged him outside the city, where they stoned him to death. The martyrdom of Stephen took place about eight years after the crucifixion of His Lord, i.e. sometime around 35 AD, since Jesus was supposedly born in 6 BC, two years before the death of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC. (see Matthew 2:16).
The hatred directed at Stephen suddenly grew into a great persecution of those who openly claimed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Luke writes, "In those days there was a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and all but the apostles were scattered in different parts of Judea and Samaria" (Acts 8:1). During this persecution, about two thousand Christians were martyred, including Nicanor, who was one of the seven deacons of the Church (Acts 6:5).

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Jacob

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The first martyr of the twelve apostles, James, was the son of Zebedee and Solomin and the elder brother of the apostle John. He is executed in 44 AD. by order of Herod Agrippa I, ruler of Judea. His death was the fulfillment of what Jesus said about him and his brother John (Mark 10:39).
The famous ancient writer Clement of Alexandria claimed that when James was being led to the place of execution, his extraordinary courage so impressed one of the guards that he fell on his knees before the apostle, asking his forgiveness and confessing that he, too, was a Christian and that James should not die alone. As a result, both of them were beheaded. Around this time, Timon and Parmen, two of the seven deacons, were executed, one at Philippi, the other at Macedonia.
Exactly ten years later, in AD 54, the Apostle Philip was cast into prison after scourging and then crucified at Hierapolis in Phrygia.

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Matthew

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Very little is known about the last days of the life of the Apostle Matthew, about the time and circumstances of his death, but the legend says that he traveled through Ethiopia, where he communicated with Candace (Acts 8:27), and that in this country he was martyred.
Some traditions say that he was nailed to the ground and beheaded with a halberd in the city of Nadavah (or Naddar), Ethiopia, around 60 AD.

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Jacob (Junior)

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This James was the brother of Jesus and the author of the epistle. He appears to have been the leader of the Jerusalem church (see Acts 12:17; 15:13-29; 21:18-24). We do not know the exact date and circumstances of his death, but it is stated that it happened in 66 AD.
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the high priest Anna ordered Jacob to be stoned. But the early Christian writer Hegesipus, who was quoted by Eusebias, a Christian historian who lived in the 3rd century, says that James was thrown from the roof of the temple. This version of his death claims that Jacob did not die from the fall, so he was beaten in the head with a club, which may have been used by fullers for cloth, or with a blacksmith's hammer.

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Matthew

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Nothing is known about him and his life, except that he was chosen to replace Judas. It is also known that he was stoned in Jerusalem and then beheaded.

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Andrew

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Andrew was Peter's brother (Matthew 4:18). Tradition says that he preached the gospel to many Asian nations and was martyred at Edessa by crucifixion on an X-shaped cross, which became known as the "St. Andrew's Cross".

Mark

Very little is known about Mark, except for what is written about him in the New Testament. After Paul mentions him in 2 Timothy 4:11, he disappears from view. Only tradition tells us the possible circumstances of his death: he was probably torn to pieces by people in Alexandria when he opposed a celebration in honor of their idol Serapis.

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Peter

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The only description of the martyrdom of the Apostle Peter we find in the early Christian writer Hegesipus. He tells the story of the miraculous appearance of Christ. Nero planned to destroy the apostle Peter when he was already in his old age (John 21:18). When the disciples found out about this, they persuaded Peter to leave the city [Rome], which he did after much persuasion. But when Peter came to the city gates, he saw Christ coming towards him. Peter fell on his knees before Him and asked, "Lord, where are you going?" Christ replied, "I am going to be crucified again." Peter realized that the time had come for him to accept death, through which he would glorify God, and returned to the city. After being taken and brought to the place of execution, he asked to be crucified upside down, as he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same way as his Lord.

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Paul

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The Apostle Paul was imprisoned in 61 AD. and wrote the Epistles there to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. His imprisonment lasted approximately three years and ended in May 64 AD. a year before the fire in Rome. During his short time at liberty, Paul may have traveled to Western and Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, and also wrote 1 Timothy and Titus.
Nero was accused of setting fire to Rome, but he denied the accusation and directed it at the Christians. As a result, a severe persecution began against them, during which Paul was arrested and thrown into prison in Rome. While in prison again, he wrote his final 2 Timothy.
Paul was soon found guilty of a crime against the emperor and sentenced to death. He was brought to the place of execution, where he was beheaded. This happened in AD 66, four years before the fall of Jerusalem.

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Judas

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The brother of Jesus was crucified in Edessa, the ancient city of Mesopotamia, around 72 AD.

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Bartholomew

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History says that Bartholomew preached in many countries, translated the Gospel of Matthew into the language of India and taught in this country. For this he was severely beaten and crucified by pagan idolaters.

Thomas

Thomas preached the gospel in Persia, Parthia and India. In Calamine (India), he was seized and tortured by pagans, then pierced with a spear and thrown into a fiery furnace.

Luke

Luke was a pagan and possibly a Greek. It is not known when or how he was converted, but he may have been a physician in the Troas, where he was converted by Paul, since he most likely joined Paul in Troas and began to travel with him. Note the verses in Acts (16:8-10) where, after mentioning the Troas, Luke begins to use the pronoun "we" rather than "they": Macedonian husband, asking him and saying: come to Macedonia and help us. After this vision, we immediately decided to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord called us to preach the gospel there. Luke arrived with Paul at Philippi, but was not imprisoned with him and did not travel with him after his release. He apparently settled in Philippi and lived there for some time. It is only when Paul visits Philippi again seven years later (Acts 20:5-6) that we meet Luke again. From that moment on, he again travels with Paul and stays with him until Paul's journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:6-21:18). Once more he disappears from sight when Paul is bound in Jerusalem and Caesarea, and reappears when Paul goes to Rome (Acts 27:1). He was with Paul during his first imprisonment (Philemon 1:24, Colossians 4:14). Many Bible scholars are convinced that Luke wrote the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles while he was with Paul in Rome.
During Paul's second imprisonment, Luke was evidently by his side, because before his martyrdom Paul writes to Timothy, "Luke alone with me" (2 Timothy 4:11).
After Paul's death, Luke most likely continues to share the good news, having learned this from Paul. The exact date of his death and how he died are unknown. An ancient source says: "He served the Lord undividedly, having neither wife nor children, and died in his sleep at the age of eighty-four years in Boetia (an unknown place), being filled with the Holy Spirit." Another early source states that Luke traveled with the gospel to Greece, where he was hanged from an olive tree in Athens in 93 CE.

John

The Apostle John, brother of James, is credited with founding the seven churches mentioned in Revelation: Smirin, Pergamon, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Thyatira, and Ephesus. It is alleged that he was arrested in Ephesus and sent to Rome, where he was immersed in a cauldron of boiling oil, which did not harm him. As a result, he was released and exiled by Emperor Domitian to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the book Revelation. After being released from Patmos, John returned to Ephesus, where he died in AD 98, the only apostle who escaped a violent death.
Even during the unceasing persecution and violent deaths, the Lord daily added the saved to the church. The Church was deeply rooted in the teachings of the apostles and sprinkled with the blood of the saints. She was prepared for the coming persecution.