Word: martyrdom
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Orthodox theology stresses martyrdom as a sign of holiness in a potential saint. Determination of sainthood is a much less formal matter than in the Roman Catholic Church, where a lengthy, legalistic procedure emphasizes an exemplary moral life and the performance of miracles after death. An Orthodox candidate need only have suffered and died for the faith, and the Orthodox communion of saints includes hundreds of thousands of such martyrs...
...history of a religious community, events in the life of the founder become paradigmatic for succeeding generations. For the early followers of Jesus, martyrdom itself became a prominent form of imitatio Christi. So I, as a doctoral student in comparative religion at harvard Divinity School and a Unification Church member, sat in the courtroom during Rev. Moon's arraignment in Manhattan yesterday, pondering the religious significance of this event...
There are moments in history when the martyrdom of a single life can symbolize all that is wrong with an age and all that is right about humanity. Anwar Sadat, a man of peace in a time of violence, understood his age. In his final moments, as he had in all his days, he stood in defiance of the enemies of peace, the enemies of humanity. Today those of us who follow him can do no less. And so to those who rejoice in the death of Anwar Sadat, to those who seek to set class against class, nation against...
This is the world of the zealots, where Irish youth are willing to starve themselves for their cause of driving the British out of Northern Ireland. It is an astounding kind of sacrifice-a brutal, lingering death, full of hatred and martyrdom, so fanatical and Irish. The moment one striker dies, 50 volunteer to take his place. Tom McElwee, who died last week, wore a glass eye as a result of one of his own guerrilla bombs. Behind him, at 55 days, Patrick Quinn, 29, had once slipped into unconsciousness. Big-bellied Michael Devine, 27, was at 48 days, gangly...
...what does a Radcliffe Joan of Arc do till the day of her martyrdom? There are no prison walls on which she can mark the passing days with a bent nail; only the Harvard Coop Calendar. There is not high, slit-like window through which the sun can halo her as she sits in her cell; only the noise and clatter of Briggs Hall. There are no guards to whom she can confide her visions...