The martyr-saints are religiously devoted individuals, who suffered many kinds of persecutions and finally death for advocating and refusing to renounce their religious belief as typically demanded by an external party – such as the government or political/religious alliances.  However, what I can’t seem to piece together is the idea that martyrdom, the death or endurance of great suffering of an individual on behalf of any belief, is an action that caused other believers to look upon these martyrs as sacred and divine. In the Christian faith of Catholicism, it is evident that martyrdom influenced other followers and converted to whole-heartedly believe in Christ as martyrs would sacrifice their lives, similarly, to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross, which would evidently spread the practices and works of Christianity. In other words, if a follower of Catholicism fully committed themselves to their faith, then they would die for their beliefs, which would make the practice of Catholicism even more undeniably worth committing to. Thus, the question that remains is: Why does the death of an individual, who undeniably commits themselves to a set of beliefs, cause others to also commit to reverently believe in the mutual faith that the martyr sacrificed their life for?

Within the close reading of Augustine’s Confessions, he and his son Adeodatus travel to Milan to participate in the Catholic spiritual unification and purification of baptism to become regenerated in faith to the Christian Church. At this moment in time, the acting bishop of Milan, Ambrose, gathers many followers together to find the relics of two martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. Interestingly, “when they had been produced and dug out, they were transferred with due honour to Ambrose’s basilica, and some people vexed by impure spirits were healed, the very demons themselves making public confessions” (Conf.9.7.16). Within Augustine’s depiction of Ambrose’s discovery of Protasius and Gervasius relics, it is evident that something miraculous occurred when their bodies brought to the surface of the earth – “impure spirits we healed…[and made] public confessions” (Conf.9.7.16). Augustine is not specific when he describes such evil spirits were healed and confessed their impurity, so it is up to the imagination to illustrate what this kind of miracle might look like. I imagine certain individuals just began to speak all of a sudden, and confessed their evilness. However, how credible is my imagination? On what basis of evidence do we convince ourselves that Augustine’s account is credible; that the people, who were with Ambrose on his search, presently saw this spiritual miracle and conversion of impure spirits. In this perspective, it becomes apparent that as miracles were produced through a brief encounter with the relics, people would then come to believe that divine sacrifice of the holy martyr is what had caused the miracle in the first place. Through the deaths of Protasius and Gervasius, their sacrifice created a kind of next-level faith that believer could spiritually interact with as the relics served as divine miracle-maker that caused people to be healed and saved by the grace of God. In other words, the relics became a sort of spiritual-channel between the physical/corporeal world and the divine/spiritual world. An example of such connection between the corporeal world and the spiritual world is demonstrated by the “citizen who had been blind many years” (Conf.9.7.16). Augustine writes, “when he arrived, he begged admission so that he might touch with his cloth the bier on which lay your saints whose ‘death is precious in your sight. When he did this and applied the cloth to his eyes, immediately they were opened’” (Conf.9.7.16). Through the citizens obtainment of sight, it becomes evident that the only understandings that were necessary for the citizen to gain back his lost sense was a strong belief that the martyred died for their unwavering devotion and faith in God, which caused the citizen to reflect that same unmovable faith and devotion to God.

Ultimately, the significance of the martyr-saints in the mental world of Augustine and his contemporaries is revealed once one begins to understand the spiritual role of martyrdom within Catholicism. In other words, people who have become undeniably devoted to God and his value-system commit themselves until death making it mentally easier (not to say being violently tortured and killed is easy once you devoted yourself to the Christian God) to sacrifice themselves for their belief and faith. Thus, to try to answer my purposed question, I think the death of a completely devoted follower of the Christian God causes others to also commit themselves to reverently believe in the mutual faith that the martyr sacrificed their life for because if a person would go as so far to die for what one stood for, then the belief become entirely worthy to bear one’s life upon – we follow because others committed to the ultimate sacrifice of their life, just as Jesus Christ did.