TdF suggestion Victoria Gallagher
Illustrates Dudu Torres
Edition Felipe van Deursen
Like all arena victims, they died in creative ways at the hands of gladiators or the claws of animals. Throughout the Roman Empire, these spectacles offered simulations of battles, theaters with mythological stories or fights – of animals, of gladiators or of animals and gladiators against prisoners. These prisoners could be thieves, deserting soldiers, slaves who had disobeyed their masters, or simply Christians.
Being sentenced to death devoured by animals in coliseums even had a name: damnation ad bestias. As a rule, the empire did not pursue Christians as state policy. However, as many followers of the new religion refused to worship Roman gods or participate in rituals in the emperor’s name, they ended up being arrested.
Over three centuries, from the origin of Christianity until the faith became the official religion of the empire, no more than 2,000 Christians died at the hands of the government. The number is relatively low. But the martyrdom saga helped Christianity to take hold. Now look at saints who were or would have been tortured or executed in the arenas.
– (Dudu Torres/)
1-Saint Bartholomew (?-?)
He was one of the 12 apostles. He was born in Cana, the city where believers believe Jesus turned water into wine. After the master’s death, Bartholomew would have gone to Armenia, where he converted the king. In retaliation, he was allegedly arrested by priests and tortured: his entire skin was ripped off. Afterwards, he would have been killed – for the method of execution, there are three versions: he could have been beaten, beheaded or crucified upside down
2-Saint Blandina (162-177)
A 15-year-old French slave, she was persecuted by the empire in the Lyon region. The executioners tortured her and offered her to wild animals (some references mention two lions; others, a lion and a bear). She was supposed to be devoured, but the animals just licked her wounds. She was kept in arena for several days, she saw several fellow believers being slaughtered, until an ox threw her in the air and pierced her with its horns
3-Saint Ignatius of Antioch (35-108)
Born in Syria, Ignatius turned out to be an expressive theologian and a renowned bishop. He was a student of the apostle John and the third bishop of the important city of Antioch, in present-day Turkey. In his letters he was the first to use the expression “Catholic Church”. Arrested in Syria and taken to Rome, he became the first Christian torn apart and devoured by lions in the Colosseum, the most important arena of the Roman Empire
4-Saint Lawrence of Huesca (225-258)
Born in present-day Valencia, Spain, he was executed in Rome at the age of 33, grilled alive. Happy with the chance to sacrifice his life for the faith, he even joked to his executioners: “This side [do meu corpo] it’s already well baked, you can turn it over”. His arrest came during a period of great persecution ordered by the Roman Emperor Valencian. Not even Pope Sixtus II escaped: he died beheaded
5-Saint Hippolytus (170-235)
A disciple of another important martyr, Saint Polycarp, he was an opponent of the popes of the time, who absolved sins in order to accept the rapid increase in the number of Christians. Exiled to escape prison in his native Rome, he ended up on the island of Sardinia, where he was imprisoned. His body would have been broken by four horses, each pulling a rope connected to the feet and hands. Afterwards, his remains were taken back to the capital.
6-Saint Polycarp (69-155)
He was known to the first apostles and became bishop of Smyrna, in present-day Turkey. He was sentenced to death during the rule of Marcus Aurelius, who had determined that every citizen of the empire should praise the Roman gods. Polycarp was tied to a stake to be burned. But, miraculously, he seemed immune to fire. So he was stabbed. Christian tradition says he is the right saint to cure earache.
7-Santa Gliceria (?-177)
Forced to perform in front of a statue of Jupiter made of gold, she would have knocked the image over – or, in other versions of the story, the work would have collapsed in her presence. Gliceria would have been arrested for refusing to accept Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus as a god. According to the belief, she was thrown to the lions, but they nestled at her feet, peacefully. She died peacefully, when she asked God for peace
8-Saint Perpetual (181-203) and Saint Felicity (183-203)
Both lived in Carthage, in present-day Tunisia. Perpetua was the mistress and Felicidade her slave. They were arrested for refusing to deny the Christian faith. At arena, a cow advanced on them, but the audience asked for clemency, as Felicidade had just given birth and her breasts were full of milk. The show was interrupted, but the two did not escape: they were beheaded.
Consultancy Candida Moss, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame (USA), and author of The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom