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A martyr (, mártys, 'witness' Word stem μαρτυρ-, martyr-) is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloquial usage, the term can also refer to any person who suffers a significant consequence in protest or support of a cause.
In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an individual by an oppression. Accordingly, the status of the 'martyr' can be considered a posthumous title as a reward for those who are considered worthy of the concept of martyrdom by the living, regardless of any attempts by the deceased to control how they will be remembered in advance.Gölz, Olmo "Martyrdom and the Struggle for Power. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Martyrdom in the Modern Middle East.", Behemoth 12, no. 1 (2019): 2–13, 5. Insofar, the martyr is a relational figure of a society's boundary work that is produced by collective memory.Gölz, Olmo "The Imaginary Field of the Heroic: On the Contention between Heroes, Martyrs, Victims and Villains in Collective Memory." In helden.heroes.héros, Special Issue 5: Analyzing Processes of Heroization. Theories, Methods, Histories. Ed. by N Falkenhayner, S Meurer and T Schlechtriemen (2019): 27–38, 27. Originally applied only to those who suffered for their religious beliefs, the term has come to be used in connection with people killed for a political cause.
Most martyrs are considered holy or are respected by their followers, becoming symbols of exceptional leadership and heroism in the face of difficult circumstances. Martyrs play significant roles in religions. Similarly, martyrs have had notable effects in secular life, including such figures as Socrates, among other political and cultural examples.
During the early Christian centuries, the term acquired the extended meaning of believers who are called to witness for their religious belief, and on account of this witness, endure suffering or death. The term, in this later sense, entered the English language as a loanword. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.
The early Christians who first began to use the term martyr in its new sense saw Jesus as the first and greatest martyr, on account of his crucifixion.Frances M. Young, The Use of Sacrificial Ideas in Greek Christian Writers from the New Testament to John Chrysostom (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004), pp. 107.Eusebius wrote of the early Christians: "They were so eager to imitate Christ ... they gladly yielded the title of martyr to Christ, the true Martyr and Firstborn from the dead." Eusebius, Church History 5.1.2.Scholars believe that Revelation was written during the period when the word for witness was gaining its meaning of martyr. Revelation describes several Christian reh with the term martyr (Rev 17:6, 12:11, 2:10–13), and describes Jesus in the same way ("Jesus Christ, the faithful witness/martyr" in Rev 1:5, and see also Rev 3:14). The early Christians appear to have seen Jesus as the Archetype martyr.A. J. Wallace and R. D. Rusk, Moral Transformation: The Original Christian Paradigm of Salvation (New Zealand: Bridgehead, 2011), pp. 217–229.
The word martyr is used in English to describe a wide variety of people. However, the following table presents a general outline of common features present in stereotypical martyrdoms.
A female martyr may rarely be referred to as a martyress.
| + Common features of stereotypical martyrdomsFrom A. J. Wallace and R. D. Rusk, Moral Transformation: The Original Christian Paradigm of Salvation (New Zealand: Bridgehead, 2011), pp. 218. | 1. | A hero | A person of some renown who is devoted to a cause believed to be admirable. |
| People who oppose that cause. | |||
| The hero foresees action by opponents to harm him or her, because of his or her commitment to the cause. | |||
| The hero continues, despite knowing the risk, out of commitment to the cause. | |||
| The opponents kill the hero because of his or her commitment to the cause. | |||
| The hero's death is commemorated. People may label the hero explicitly as a martyr. Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause. |
While the term can be narrowly used for a person who is killed because of their religion, it is more generally used to mean a person who died a violent death. Thus it can arguably mean a general ‘victim’.
A person is a martyr if they were killed because of their identity, because of natural disasters like earthquakes, or while performing relief or health care work. For example, İbrahim Bilgen was killed by Israel in the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. Because he died as a humantiarian activist, he is called a martyr by Al-Jazeera.
Martyrdom is also tied with nationalism, because a martyr can be a person who died in the context of national struggle. For example, in Beirut, Martyrs' Square is a public square that's dedicated to Lebanese nationalists who were executed by the Ottomans.
In Palestine, the word ‘martyr’ is traditionally used to mean a person killed by Israeli forces, regardless of religion. (2025). 9781139248853 ISBN 9781139248853 For example, Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian Christian journalist who was killed by Israeli forces, and Arabic media calls her a ‘martyr’. This reflects a communal belief that every Palestinian death is part of a resistance against Israeli occupation. Children are likewise called martyrs, such as the children of journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh who were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The label of martyrdom is used as a form of memoralizing the dead within some narrative, such as how the victims of the 2020 Beirut explosion were called ‘martyrs of corruption’ as a form of protest against the government.
The wide usage of ‘martyr’ is not restricted to Arabic. Armenian culture likewise uses the term for the victims of the Armenian genocide, who are called Holy Martyrs. April 24 is Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, and also called "Armenian Martyrs Day".
There are times that the Hebrew Bible records that the Israelites, the ancestors of the Jews, are instructed to wage war against their enemies in the Bible sometimes as instructed by God or their leaders or both. Examples are wars against Amalek and the Seven Nations. Such wars are known as Milkhemet Mitzvah ("war by commandment" in Hebrew, or "Holy War") and any Israelite or Jew who is killed in the course of fighting for the cause is automatically regarded as having died al Kiddush Hashem ("for Sanctifying God's Name") and is hence a Jewish martyr.
The concept of Jesus as a martyr has recently received greater attention. Analyses of the Passion narratives in the Gospels have led many scholars to conclude that they are martyrdom accounts in terms of genre and style.J. W. van Henten, "Jewish Martyrdom and Jesus' Death" in Jörg Frey & Jens Schröter (eds.), Deutungen des Todes Jesu im Neuen Testament (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005) pp. 157–168.Donald W. Riddle, "The Martyr Motif in the Gospel According to Mark." The Journal of Religion, IV.4 (1924), pp. 397–410.M. E. Vines, M. E. Vines, "The 'Trial Scene' Chronotype in Mark and the Jewish Novel", in G. van Oyen and T. Shepherd (eds.), The Trial and Death of Jesus: Essays on the Passion Narrative in Mark (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 189–203. Several scholars have also concluded that Paul the Apostle understood Jesus' death as a martyrdom.Stephen Finlan, The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2004), pp. 193–210Sam K. Williams, Death as Saving Event: The Background and Origin of a Concept (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press for Harvard Theological Review, 1975), pp. 38–41.David Seeley, The Noble Death (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), pp. 83–112.Stanley Stowers, A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (Ann Arbor: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 212ff.Jarvis J. Williams, Maccabean Martyr Traditions in Paul's Theology of Atonement (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2010)S. A. Cummins, Paul and the Crucified Christ in Antioch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). In light of such conclusions, some have argued that the early Christians of the first three centuries would have interpreted the crucifixion of Jesus as a martyrdom.Stephen J. Patterson, Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2004).
In the context of church history, from the time of the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire under the Julio-Claudian dynasty, it developed that a martyr was one who was killed for maintaining a Faith, knowing that this will almost certainly result in imminent death (though without intentionally seeking death). This definition of martyr is not specifically restricted to the Christian faith. Christianity recognizes certain Old Testament Jewish figures, like Abel and the Maccabees, as holy, and the New Testament mentions the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus's possible cousin and his prophet and forerunner. The first Christian witness, after the establishment of the Christian faith at Pentecost, to be killed for his testimony was Saint Stephen (whose name means "crown"), and those who suffer martyrdom are said to have been "crowned". From the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine I, Christianity was decriminalized, and then, under Theodosius I, became the state religion, which greatly diminished persecution (although not for non-Nicene Christians). As some wondered how then they could most closely follow Christ there was a development of desert spirituality characterized by a Hermit, renunciation, self-mortification, and separation from the world, practiced by several Desert Fathers and Christian ascetics in late antiquity (such as Paul the Hermit and Anthony the Great). This was a kind of white martyrdom, dying to oneself every day, as opposed to a red martyrdom, the giving of one's life in a violent death. Arena, Saints, directed by Paul Tickell, 2006
In the history of Christianity, death due to sectarian persecutions by other Christians has been regarded as martyrdom as well. There were martyrs recognized on both sides of the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England after 1534. Two hundred and eighty-eight Christians were martyred for their faith by public burning between 1553 and 1558 by the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I in England leading to the reversion to the Church of England under Queen Elizabeth I in 1559. "From hundreds to thousands" of Waldensians were martyred in the Massacre of Mérindol in 1545. Three-hundred Roman Catholics were said to have been martyred by the Church authorities in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Even more modern day accounts of martyrdom for Christ exist, depicted in books such as Jesus Freaks, though the numbers are disputed. The claim that 100,000 Christians are killed for their faith annually is greatly exaggerated according to the BBC, with many of those deaths due to war, but the fact of ongoing Christian martyrdoms remains undisputed.
The concept of martyrdom in Islam became prominent during the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979) and the subsequent Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), so that the cult of the martyr had a lasting impact on the course of revolution and war.Gölz, "Martyrdom and Masculinity in Warring Iran. The Karbala Paradigm, the Heroic, and the Personal Dimensions of War.", Behemoth 12, no. 1 (2019): 35–51, 35. Since the early 2000s, it has been primarily associated with Islamic extremism and jihadism.
The Manchester Martyrs were three Irishmen executed after being convicted for the murder of a Manchester City Police officer in 1867. The day after the executions, Frederick Engels wrote to Karl Marx: "Yesterday morning the Tories, by the hand of Mr Calcraft, accomplished the final act of separation between England and Ireland. The only thing that the Fenians still lacked were martyrs. ... To my knowledge, the only time that anybody has been executed for a similar matter in a civilised country was the case of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. The Fenians could not have wished for a better precedent."Marx and Engels in Ireland (1971) Progress Publishers, Moscow. Letter of November 24 1867 Engels to Marx Ten Provisional IRA members died during a 1981 hunger strike, including Bobby Sands.
The Belfiore martyrs (in Italian language, Martiri di Belfiore) were a group of Italy pro-independence fighters condemned to death by hanging in 1853 during the Italian Risorgimento. They included Tito Speri and the priest Enrico Tazzoli and are named after the site where the sentence was carried out, in the valley of Belfiore at the south entrance to Mantua.
Many communist activists have died as martyrs in India, due to their allegiance to various communist parties, such as the CPI(M) and the CPI. Most of them hail from mainly leftist states such as Kerala, and Tripura. In Kerala, many are killed in protests by the police, and some are assassinated by activists in other political parties, such as the INC and the RSS. The district of Kannur district has reported to have had the most political murders. Here, the RSS are known to have used brutal violence to eliminate CPI(M) workers.
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