Christos Yannaras on Martyrdom

Christos Yannaras

The witness of the Christian martyrs goes beyond the heroism of self-denial for the sake of certain  ideals which a person believes to be higher in value even than his individual survival. History has seen many forms of such idealistic heroism and extreme self-denial, and all merit absolute respect; but they bear no direct relation to the witness of Christian martyrs. The martyrs of the Church embody the truth of the Church, the truth of the true life which is communion and  relationship with God– which is the ultimate self-transcendence of natural individuality, and love for Christ who alone gives a hypostasis of eternal life to man’s personal distinctiveness. It is not a question of ideological fanaticism, or of faith in ideas which aim to improve our common life; what we have seen is the concrete realization of a mode of existence which is the complete antithesis of individual survival, and has its historical prototype in the cross of Christ.

*Taken from The Freedom of Morality.