The Experience of the Early Christian Martyrs
By Nathaniel Binzen, October 7, 1999
The third-century stories of the Christian martyrs of Lyons and North Africa give us some rich impressions of what their actual experiences were like. I will try here to capture something of the experience of the martyrs by following what I see in the texts as one particular thread out of many. The thread begins with Christians living in a world of danger. In this context, the persecuted believers image themselves in a state of perfection, which protects them from the danger. This image of perfection both is driven by, and manifests itself, in the form of an intense state of inspiration, or future hope. Finally, in the case of Perpetua and the North Africans, inspiration takes on a special intensity, even a sense of authority, as vision and power.
The communities of the martyrs are striving in an atmosphere of intense oppression and conflict, surrounded by neighbors and authorities heaping on "abuse, blows…stoning, imprisonment." The Christians regard the devil as the active, personified force driving events, striving "to train and prepare his minions against God's servants." They speak of "wild and barbarous people stirred up by the wild Beast" and torturous jailers "aroused and filled with the Devil."
Indeed, the devil's work is not confined to the enemy camp: the problem of Christians succumbing to doubt or weakness is acute: "Satan strove to have some word of blasphemy escape their lips." These faltering Christians, shown to be "untrained, unprepared, and weak" - even characterized as "stillborn" - caused a morale problem for the beleaguered believers, having the effect of "blunting...the will of those who had not yet been arrested." An even greater problem for the community is that its most zealous members, on whom the community most depends, are all being killed.
Within themselves, the Christian martyrs counter this pressure by envisioning their own actions as drawing them ever closer to a God-like state of perfection. In their perfection lies their protection (yet, ironically, the line that this kind of thinking draws between them and the wider pagan community no doubt intensifies their persecution: statements like "you have condemned us, but God will condemn you" almost demand an escalation of conflict. To be perfect is to subject one's will entirely to God: Vettius Epagathus, for one, is "a true disciple of Christ, following the Lamb wherever he goes." As such, he "walked blamelessly." Another image of a state of perfection which most of us would find unattainable even on a good day is given by the "holy, innocent blood" of Felicitas.
Related to this imagery of perfection is the brave will of the chosen, seen in their delighted anticipation of glorious death: after sentencing, the North Africans return to their cells in "high spirits"; later they "marched...to the amphitheater joyously." When it came time for Perpetua to die, she "took the trembling hand of the young gladiator and guided it to her throat."
Foremost in the martyr's minds must be the assurance that "all who suffer for Christ's glory will have eternal fellowship in the living God." This axiom ensures that "the sufferings of the present time are not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Their hope for the future strengthens them in their trials, as the inspiration of faith overcomes their pain. Blandina, in the midst of torture, "got renewed strength with her confession of faith," bringing her "refreshment, rest, and insensibility to her present pain. Sanctus, while red-hot plates are applied to his skin, is "cooled and strengthened by the heavenly fountain of water that flowed from the side of Christ."
In fact, the martyrs have more than just faith in the future - they identify their own persons very closely with Christ: Blandina "had put on Christ…and…had won the crown of immortality." In the throes of death, some martyrs experience ecstasy: "[Blandina] no longer perceived what was happening because of the hope and possession of all she believed in and because of her intimacy with Christ."
In North Africa, the experience of the martyrs is raised to an even higher level, at least as presented by the author. Here the description becomes one of active spiritual power. In the author's extraordinary estimation, the reporting of events carries the force of scripture. Warning against those "who would restrict the power of the one Spirit to times and seasons," the author promises "not only new prophecies but new visions as well, according to the promise" of scripture. The authority thus claimed for the martyrs, then, is as intercessors to God: those who hear "may have fellowship with the holy martyrs and, through them, with the Lord..."
So what warrants this remarkable assessment? There are signs, such as the group-prayer-induced early birth of a child by Felicitas, which allows her to achieve her martyrdom without postponement. There are as well, of course, the many acts of the martyrs as detailed above. But the most distinctive reports in North Africa are of the brilliant dream-visions of the martyrs Perpetua and Saturus. There are prophetic visions of healing, of glorious triumph, and of heavenly gardens. To me, the most striking assumption of power by a martyr is Perpetua's two visions of her little brother Dinocrates, who died of a cancer of the face. In the first, he is suffering in his afterlife, unable to drink. Perpetua heals Dinocrates through prayer, visioning him a second time, refreshed, his face-wound sealed by a scar, drinking from a golden bowl.
The vividness and beauty of the martyrs' visions attests to the extraordinariness of their experience. How to assess the authority of such visions is a fascinating question, unfortunately beyond the scope of this paper. In the history that follows, such assumptions of power by individuals prove at times to be a source of trouble for the church. Suppose that refinements of church doctrine are driven, in these cases, by the need to fend off such threats from within. Are these trajectories, then, ever-closer passes at the truth - or opportunistic routes out of a maze?
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