List of Christian martyrs
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
This is a list of reputed martyrs of Christianity. The list can never be fully complete, and it includes only notable people with Wikipedia articles. Not all Christian denominations accept every figure on this list as a martyr or Christian, see the linked articles for fuller discussion.
Contents
Apostolic Age—1st century
According to Acts of the Apostles
- James, son of Zebedee (executed by sword)
- Saint Stephen (stoning)
According to Flavius Josephus
- James the Just (stoning)
According to early Christian tradition
- Saint Peter, first attested by Tertullian about 200 AD
- Saint Paul, first attested by Ignatius probably about 110 AD
According to late or local Christian tradition
- Mark the Evangelist
- Philip the Apostle - conflicting accounts (chose to stay crucified or was beheaded)
- Andrew the Apostle
- Jude the Apostle
- Bartholomew the Apostle - conflicting accounts
- Thomas the Apostle
Largely or wholly legendary
- Simon the Zealot, varying and contradictory late traditions.
Age of Martyrdom—2nd to 4th centuries
The martyrdom of St. Alban, from a 13th-century manuscript, now in the Trinity College Library, Dublin. Note the executioner's eyes falling out of his head.
According to early Christian tradition or with some historical attestation within a hundred years of the event
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Justin Martyr
- Scillitan Martyrs
- Perpetua and Felicity
- Ptolemaeus and Lucius
- Pothinus, bishop of Lyon, with Blandina and several others, the "Martyrs of Lyon and Vienne"
- Pope Fabian
- Saint Sebastian
- Saint Agnes
- Felix and Adauctus
- Marcellinus and Peter
- Origen
- Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
- Euphemia
- Cyprian (for Protestants)
According to late Christian tradition or with some historical attestation more than a hundred years after the event
Largely or wholly legendary
- Saint Afra
- Saint George
- Januarius
- Vincent of Saragossa
- Saint Behnam
- Saint Lucy
- Lawrence of Rome
- Saint Cecilia
- Catherine of Alexandria
- Vitus
Middle Ages—5th to 15th centuries
- Valentine and Engratia, ca. 715, Hermit martyrs of Segovia
- Ludmila of Bohemia, 921
- King Edward the Martyr, 979
- Jovan Vladimir, 1014
- Stanislaus of Szczepanów, 1079
- Saint Thomas Becket, 1170
- Tsar Lazar, 1389
- John Huss (Jan Huss), 1415
- Jerome of Prague, 1416
Reformation Era—16th century
Dirk Willems etching from Martyrs Mirror.
- Jan de Bakker, 1525, burned at the stake.
- Felix Manz, 1527
- Patrick Hamilton, 1528
- George Blaurock, 1529
- St Thomas More, 1535, executed
- St John Fisher, 1535
- William Tyndale, 1535
- Carthusian Martyrs, 1535–1537
- St. Arthur of Glastonbury, 1539
- Margaret Pole, 1541
- Juan de Padilla, Spanish missionary to New Mexico, 1542
- Anne Askew, 1546
- George Wishart, 1546
- Matthew Hammond, 1549
- Luis de Cancer, Spanish missionary to La Florida, 1549
- Hugh Latimer, 1555
- Nicholas Ridley, 1555
- Rowland Taylor, 1555
- John Hooper, 1555
- John Rogers, 1555
- William Hunter, 1555
- Lawrence Saunders, 1555
- Thomas Cranmer, 1556
- Dirk Willems, 1569
- St Edmund Campion, 1581
- Margaret Ball, 1584
- The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, various dates
Modern Era—17th to 21st centuries
Largely or wholly legendary
- Devasahayam Pillai, 1712-1752, Indian martyr.
Others
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An illustration depicts the brutal death of Father Luís Jayme by the hands of angry natives at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in Alta California, November 4, 1775.
- Martyrs of Japan
- Kakure Kirishitan
- Francis Taylor, 1621
- Vietnamese Martyrs 1625 - 1886
- Magdalene of Nagasaki 1634
- Lorenzo Ruiz, 1637
- Canadian Martyrs, North American Martyrs, 1642–1649
- Arthur Bell, 1643
- Isaac Jogues, 1646 (French Jesuit in New York killed by Indians)
- John de Britto, 1647-1693, born in Portugal and beheaded in India
- Francis Ferdinand de Capillas (Dominican missionary to China), 1648
- Diego Luis de San Vitores and Pedro Calungsod, 1672
- Feodosia Morozova (Old Believer), 1675
- Oliver Plunkett, 1681
- Felipe Songsong, 1685
- Constantin Brâncoveanu, 1714
- Vicente Liem de la Paz (Tonkinese Dominican), 1773
- Luís Jayme, Spanish missionary to Alta California, 1775
- Cosmas of Aetolia, 1779
- Francisco Garcés, Spanish missionary to Alta California, 1781
- Martyrs of Compiegne, 1794
- Andrés Quintana, Spanish missionary to Alta California, 1812
- Chinese Martyrs (various Christian denominations), 19th and 20th centuries
- Andrew Dung-Lac (Vietnamese Catholic), 1839
- Hyrum Smith, 1844
- Joseph Smith, 1844
- Korean Martyrs 1839, 1846, 1866
- Peter Chanel (Catholic priest), 1841
- Andrew Kim Taegon, 1846
- Marcus Whitman, 1847
- Narcissa Whitman, 1847
- Lucy Yi Zhenmei, one of the 19th century Chinese Catholic Martyrs, 1862
- Thomas Baker, 1867, English missionary killed and eaten, Fiji
- Martyrs of Uganda, 1885–1887
- Esther John 1929-1960, Found Killed in Chichawatni commemorated at Westminster Abbey.
- Maria Goretti (also a rape victim), 1902
- Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, 1918
- Nun Barbara (Yakovleva), 1918
- Saints of the Cristero War 1926-1927
- Miguel Pro, 1927
- Cristóbal Magallanes Jara, 1927
- Toribio Romo González, 1928
- Manche Masemola, (1913–1928)
- José Sánchez del Río 1928
- Innocencio of Mary Immaculate 1934
- Bartolome Blanco Marquez, 1936
- Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War 1934, 1936–1939
- Paul Schneider (pastor)1939
- Maximilian Kolbe (Polish Franciscan, died at Auschwitz), 1941
- Edith Stein (Carmelite nun, died at Auschwitz), 1942
- Lucian Tapiedi (1942)
- Franz Jägerstätter, 1943
- Dusty Miller (Martyr), 1945, a Methodist layman killed as a P.O.W. of the Japanese in Thailand during WWII.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (April 9, 1945) Lutheran Pastor and member of the German Resistance
- Rolando Rivi, fourteen-year-old Seminarian 1945
- Theodore Romzha, 1947
- Beda Chang, 1951
- Zdenka Cecilia Schelingová, 1955
- Jim Elliot, 1956
- Nate Saint, 1956, killed while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people
- Ed McCully, 1956
- Pete Fleming, 1956
- Roger Youderian, 1956
- ChengHua Yu, 1956
- Wang Zhiming (1907 - December 29, 1973) Chinese pastor, publicly executed
- Janani Jakaliya Luwum (1922 – 17 February 1977), Archbishop of Uganda.
- Óscar Romero (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980), Archbishop of San Salvador
- Kosheh Martyrs, Egypt 1998–2000
- Martin Burnham, 2002
- Nag Hammadi martyrs, Egypt 2010
- Kenji Goto, 2015
