Growing up catholic I have/had a certain reverence toward anyone called a martyr.
Until now.
The happenings in the mideast has cheapened the word ,and turned it into something I just don’t understand.
Is there another word that can be used to sort of reinstall the old feelings that martyrs are the saintly type people I felt such reverence for?
Well, martyrs don’t commit suicide, for one.
They can. There were all those famous “virgin martyrs” in the Catholic faith, who jumped into fires or out windows or whatever to avoid being raped.
Probably a better distinguishing feature is that martyrs don’t generally kill other people.
Yeah, Ito my knowledge all the martyrs in Roman days were martyrs because they allowed themselves to die for their faith without complaint (although I’m sure a few screams of agony were OK), not because they took the war to the enemy.
In medieval times a number of Popes, including John VIII, made proclamations that anyone who died in battle defending the church would be accounted a Christian martyr and would be correspondingly rewarded in Heaven.
Reference: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2793/theo-5.html quoting Roman Catholic historian Paul Johnson.
The Arabic word commonly used for these murderers is “shahid”. I think that translates better into “holy one” than martyr.
The Arabic word commonly used for these murderers is “shahid”. I think that translates better into “holy one” than martyr.