A martyr is someone who dies for Christ rather than deny him. The word itself means “witness” in Greek. That’s what a martyr does, bears witness to the truth of the Gospel even when it costs everything.
When you hear “martyr” in an Orthodox context, you’re hearing about people who took Jesus at his word. He said whoever loses his life for his sake will find it. The martyrs did exactly that. They refused to burn incense to the emperor, wouldn’t renounce Christ under torture, chose death over apostasy. Their blood became the seed of the Church, as the saying goes. Persecutors thought killing Christians would stamp out the faith. It had the opposite effect.
The Early Witnesses
St. Stephen was the first. You can read about him in Acts 7. He was stoned to death for preaching Christ, and as the rocks struck him he prayed for his killers. That’s the pattern martyrs follow, not vengeance, but love. They imitate Christ’s own death.
St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote letters on his way to execution in Rome around 107 AD. He called himself “God’s wheat” and said he longed to be ground by the teeth of beasts so he could become pure bread for Christ. That’s not suicidal thinking. It’s Paschal thinking. Ignatius saw his death as participation in Christ’s death and resurrection, a birth into eternal life. The Orthodox Church has always understood martyrdom this way, not as tragedy, but as victory.
There were thousands more. Perpetua and Felicity in Carthage. The forty soldiers frozen in a lake in Armenia. St. George, the great-martyr whose icon you’ll see in nearly every Orthodox church. These weren’t people looking for death. They were ordinary Christians who wouldn’t compromise when the state demanded they deny Christ.
Why We Honor Them
We venerate martyrs because they’re united to Christ in the most complete way possible. They didn’t just believe in the resurrection, they staked their lives on it. When you stand before an icon of a martyr, you’re looking at someone who proved that death has no power over those who belong to Christ.
Their relics are kept in our churches, often sealed in the altar table itself. We ask their prayers. We sing hymns on their feast days that celebrate their struggle and their crowns. The Church doesn’t do this because we’re morbid or because we glorify suffering. We do it because the martyrs show us what it means to take up the cross. They’re proof that the Kingdom of God is more real than anything this world can threaten us with.
The liturgical hymns for martyrs don’t dwell on the gore of their deaths. They announce victory. “Thou didst despise the shame of death and didst receive the crown of incorruptibility.” That’s the refrain. The martyrs didn’t lose, they won.
Different Kinds of Martyrs
The Church recognizes different categories. A protomartyr is the first martyr of a particular group (Stephen for all Christians, St. Thekla for women). A great-martyr endured extraordinary tortures. A hieromartyr was a priest or bishop who died for the faith. New martyrs are those killed in more recent centuries, there are thousands from Russia alone, killed under the Soviets. And a confessor is someone who suffered for Christ but didn’t die, like St. Maximos the Confessor who had his tongue cut out for defending the faith.
You’ll also hear about “unbloody martyrdom.” That’s the ascetic life, monks and nuns who die to the world without literal execution. It’s still witness. It’s still participation in Christ’s cross.
What This Means for Us
Most of us won’t face literal martyrdom. But the call to witness remains. In Southeast Texas, you’re more likely to face mockery than execution. Your extended family might think you’ve joined a cult when you start going to St. Michael’s. Coworkers at the plant might not understand why you fast or keep a prayer rule. That’s still witness, even if it’s not blood.
The martyrs teach us that Christ is worth everything. Not just worth an hour on Sunday, not just worth believing in as long as it’s convenient. Worth your life. When St. Polycarp was told to curse Christ and he’d be released, he answered, “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” He was burned alive. He’s still praying for us.
We remember the martyrs because they’re not dead. They’re more alive than we are. They stand before the throne of God, and the Church on earth joins them every time we celebrate the Liturgy. Their witness continues. It strengthens us when our own faith wavers, reminds us what we’re part of, points us toward the Kingdom they’ve already entered.
If you want to learn more about specific martyrs, the lives of the saints are read in Orthodox services throughout the year. You can also find them on oca.org or in books like “The Synaxarion.” Start with the early ones, Ignatius, Polycarp, Perpetua. Their stories aren’t ancient history. They’re family.
