(In Pics) Martyrs and the Early Christian Church

Christianity, for the first few centuries at least, was not popular. Butting heads with everyone from the Jews to the Romans will get you exiled, tortured, or killed in short order.

This became such a feature of Christianity in those early dark years of secret worship and hidden practices that a virtue was made of remaining serene under torture. Many early and significant Christian saints were martyred in this way.

Over time these martyrs became associated with their methods of execution, and medieval illustrators and fresco artists brought these gruesome details to the fore. This led to a strange artform where brutal cruelty is joined with serene indifference on the part of the saint: the torture could not reach them.

Here are six martyred Christians and the execution methods they became know for.

1. Saint George

*This 12th century fresco from Georgia shows Saint George being* *tortured* on the wheel, a brutal execution method which involved breaking the bones in your body as you were stretched across it. The other famous Christian martyr associated with the wheel is St Catherine, with “Catherine wheels” being a popular firework today (T-eodore / *Public Domain*)

2. Saint Reparta

This panel, painted some time in the early 14th century, depicts Saint Reparta being tortured with red hot irons, remaining indifferent to the pain. Saint Reparta, who had a widespread following in the Middle Ages but who is less well known today, was a *Spanish* *Catholic martyr from the 3rd century, arrested and tortured to death during the Roman persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius (Bernardo Daddi /* *Public Domain*)

3. Saint Bartholomew

Saint Bartholomew, a 1st century contemporary of Christ who led a mission to India, had the skin flayed from his body while he was still alive. The saint is almost always depicted with his flayed skin, with perhaps the most famous version being *Michelangelo’s* *depiction in the Sistine Chapel of the* *Vatican. Michelangelo’s painting of the saint’s skin is widely believed to be a self-portrait (Slackgab /* *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

4. Saint Lawrence of Rome

*Saint Lawrence, a 3rd century deacon of* *Rome* in the early Christian church, was martyred by the Roman Emperor Valerian during 258 AD. Lawrence was strapped to a gridiron and hot coals were piled under it, heating the iron to a red hot temperature. Lawrence, ignoring the pain, called out to the guards that he had cooked sufficiently on one side, and that they should turn him over (Jose Luiz / *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

5. Saint John the Evangelist

John is, famously, the only of the twelve apostles of Jesus to not be killed for his beliefs, retiring instead to the island of Patmos and dying of old age. This is not to say that the authorities didn’t try to kill him, cooking him in a giant pot of oil, but the apostle was left miraculously unharmed (Wellcome Trust / CC BY 4.0)

6. Saint Cyricus

Perhaps the most brutal treatment of all was saved for Saint Cyricus and his mother Julitta, who were martyred in Tarsus around 300 AD. Identified as Christians in Tarsus, they were brought before the governor when Cyricus, only three years old, scratched his face. The mother and son were then tortured, with Julitta being sawn in half and torn apart with hooks, as depicted top left (MNAC / *Public Domain*)

Top Image: Statue of Saint Bartholomew in the Vatican, with his skin draped around his flayed body. Source: Latente Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0.

References

Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More