“IT IS THE PART OF A NOBLE ATHLETE TO BE WOUNDED, AND YET TO CONQUER”: MILITANCY IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM

Abstract

The article reveals the militant, that is, positively correlated with active violence, images and concepts in the early Christian martyrdom: agon (struggle), war, and the army. Contrary to the widespread notion of a Christian martyr as a passive and speechless victim of persecution, the author shows that martyrs themselves, the authors of martyrological works, and theologians regarded martyrs as fighters or warriors who fight the devil and achieve victory in death. According to such an interpretation, martyrs were called “noble athletes/fighters”, as well as “athletes of Christ” or “soldiers of Christ”, and their feats were called “the great struggle”. The tradition of militant understanding of martyrdom takes shape in the II-III centuries CE and persists in the later tradition. Besides, in the IV-V centuries. it was actively exploited by some radical Christian movements that practiced real violence - in particular, Egyptian and Syrian monks, Parabalani, and the Circumcellions...