God Consecrated Rome’s First Fruits in the Blood of the Martyrs

God Consecrated Rome’s First Fruits in the Blood of the Martyrs

SAINTS & ART: With firm courage, we draw strength from their struggle and rejoice in the triumph of faithful love.

Martyrs don’t bend the knee — even to the state

True religious liberty means more than freedom from coercion — it’s the duty to serve God above all, a truth our founders and martyrs like More understood.

The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome

Christian communities were established in Rome around a dozen years following Jesus’s death, and notably, they were not converts of the “Apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 15:20). At the time when Paul penned his pivotal letter in 57-58 A.D., he had not yet visited these communities. Rome boasted a substantial Jewish population at the time. It’s likely that due to escalating disputes between Jews and Jewish Christians, Emperor Claudius decreed the…

The Protomartyrs of Rome - Catholic Insight

The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church – Tertullian (+240 A.D.) The first, or proto-, martyrs of the Church of Rome commemorate the untold number of Christians put to death under the reign of Nero, in the very first days of the Church, when to be a Christian meant more or less either to be a martyr, or prepare for that swift and noble path to heaven.  They preceded not long before the deaths of saints Peter and Paul, and both under the r…