Jude Michael E.

Jorsa
AB-23

Journal #4

1. The movie started on one year after the crucifixion of Jesus. Stephen, the first
follower of Jesus to choose death rather than renounce his beliefs.
He became the first Christian martyr and almost one of the first Christian Saints.
On October 1982 in Rome, a new Saint is being
added to the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. His name is Maximilian Kolbe, a
Polish priest who was killed at Auschwitz during World War two when he
volunteered to take the place of a Jew who had been condemned to death. Christian
communities springing up throughout the Mediterranean in Cyprus Asia Minor and
Greece will
multiply there will be sporadic persecutions and even the occasional martyrdom
though nothing widespread or systematic but that is about to change. Apollonia was
attacked by a mob and thrown on a
bonfire for refusing to curse Christ but not before they broke out all her teeth
she is remembered as the patron saint of two things. The persecutors of seventeen-
year-old Venantius whipped him hung
him upside down over a fire smashed his jaw then threw him to the Lions who showed
no interest in the end they had to cut off his head to silence his prayers yet in
spite of all the bloodshed the number
of Christians continued to grow martyrdom in a sense promoted Christianity people
would learn of the gruesome deaths of these people and in vivid detail they loved
to of course relate all of the
various tortures and bloodshed and folks adhere of this. Church began to evangelize
out of the traditional areas of the Roman Empire
that the Christians would destroy the pagan temples and then over those temples
build Christian churches and in tear may be the bones of part of the
bones are part of the body of a martyr what developed was a system of shrines local
spiritual power centers each built
around the story of a saint and their relics without relics a church wasn't
considered a church in fact at the
beginning of the ninth century according to ecclesiastical law any local church
that didn't have the bones of a saint in
the altar could be torn down predictably the demand for relics intensified what
happened if you were a Christian and you happen to live in a town where you
didn't have a martyrs grave. Colby did not die a martyr for the Catholic faith in
the strict sense of the term that is he was not singled out
for death because of any particular animosity towards his beliefs he took the place
of a married person and said take me I'm not married I'm a priest he
died a horrible death and he spiritually nurtured the people around and in fact he
held out so long they had to give a lethal dose but the point was did he die
for the faith they didn't come forward and say hey priest you're a priest regard to
her - no he took the place when he gave his life for another this
left the church in an awkward position one could not hear Colby's story without
knowing instinctively that he was a saint and yet technically he was not a
martyr of the faith in the Vatican the Pope himself a pole wrestled with the
problem. The movie end that tremendous courage it takes guts to be a martyr
all of the earlier martyrs were first and foremost real people flesh-and-blood
human beings with an abiding belief in the message of Jesus Christ
from humble beginnings in shadowy corners of Jerusalem the Christian community grew
and multiplied when called upon many Christians willingly gave up their
lives over the centuries through their extraordinary faith courage and capacity for
sacrifice the martyr Saints did nothing less who change the world forever.
2. I feel so proud, sad, amazed, and happy because all of the scenes, sacifices and
fights that the sory of he movie told us. The 20th century story of nagazaki and
auschwitz is about suffering, death and the power of man
in destruction. with the life of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan
priest who was canonised, he witnessed for the Christian fatih in the first and
with his death he witnessed for the same faith in the second.
He displayed the hope that is present and gives added joy to the springtime of
peace and the hope. I am amazed of how good is maximilian and he spontaneously
offered himself up to death out of love. Also, he offered himself in exchange
for a married man and a father because dying for love that life may be more
abundant is the Christian way. I feel so happy because by studying and watching
their lives
and admiring them, we can grow ever closer to the divine original.

3. The commonalities between a saint and a martyr is that they both aiming for the
better, for the sake of others and helping with all of their might. Both saints and
martyrs have beliefs and faith.

4. I can apply their virtues with our daily lives, that doing what is good and what
is better. Aiming for a better future and doing all the best we can to have peace
and faith to what we all do and what we believe.
Striving hard for the good results and fighting and doing what is right and
eliminate what is wrong in the sense of justice.