Theology The Church- The Christian Martyrs in early Christians.

1. THEOLOGY
(The CHURCH)

2. San
Lorenzo
Ruiz

3. San Lorenzo Ruiz
Born: Nov. 28,1594, Binondo,Manila
Died: Sept. 29, 1637, Nagasaki, Japan
Ideals: A. 1st. Filipino Saint
B. Canonized by Saint John PaulII
Feast Day: Sept. 28
Nationality: Filipino- Chinese

4. At a young age, Lorenzo served as an altar boy at the
Binondo Church. He studied under the Dominican
friars. After a few years, Ruiz earned the title of
calligrapher because of his skillful penmanship. He
became a member of the Confraternity of the Most
Holy Rosary. He married Rosario and they had two
sons and a daughter. The Ruiz family led a generally
peaceful, religious and comfortable life. However,
while working as a clerk for the Binondo Church, Ruiz
was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard. Thereby, he
sought asylum on board a ship with the help of three
Dominican priests.

5. On 27 September 1637, Lorenzo
and his companions were taken to
Nishizaka Hill, where they were
tortured by being hung upside-down
over a pit. He died two days later on
29 September 1637, aged 42. This
form of torture was known as
tsurushi (釣殺し) in Japanese or
horca y hoya ("gallows and pit") in
Spanish

7. St. Pedro
Calungsod

8. St. Pedro Calungsod
Born: July 21, 1654, Ginatilan, Cebu
Died: April 2, 1672, Tumon, Tamuning, Guam
Ideals: A. Sacristan and Missionary
B. Canonized by Pope
catechist
Benedict XVI
Feast Day: April 2
Nationality: Filipino-Visayan Migrant

9. In 1668, Calungsod, then around age 14, was
amongst the exemplary young catechists
chosen to accompany Spanish Jesuit
missionaries to the Islas de los Ladrones
(“Isles of Thieves”), which have since been
renamed the Marianas Islands the year before
to honor both the Virgin Mary and the
mission’s benefactress, Maria Ana of Austria,
Queen Regent of Spain

10. Calungsod accompanied the priest Diego
San Vitores to Guam to catechize the native
Chamorros. Shortly after their arrival, a
Chinese man named Choco, a criminal from
Manila who was exiled in Guam, began
spreading rumors that the baptismal water
used by missionaries was poisonous. As
some sickly Chamorro infants who were
baptized died, many believed the story and
held the missionaries responsible.

11. Calungsod and San Vitores went to the
village of Tumon, Guam on April 2, 1672.
They offered the village ruler, Chief
Matapang, an invitation to join the Christian
faith. However, influenced by Choco, Chief
Matapang refused the invitation and was
determined to kill the missionaries.
Matapang searched for an accomplice and
found another villager, a pagan named
Hirao, who eventually acceded when
Matapang branded him coward

12. While Matapang was away from his house,
Calungsod and San Vitores baptized his
baby girls, with the consent of his wife, a
Christian. This made Matapang even more
furious and led to the violent killing of
Calungsod and San Vitores. Matapang and
Hirao undressed the bodies of Calungsod
and San Vitores, tied large stones to their
feet, and brought to Tumon Bay, dumping the
bodies in the water.

14. Early
Christian
Martyrs

15. For the first 300 years of
Christianity, the followers of Jesus
were under great pressure.
They lived in what was known as
the Roman Empire, it was illegalto
be Christian in most of the Roman
Empire.

16. Every person in the Roman Empire, no
matter what their religion, was
supposed to honor the Roman
Emperor as a God, if they do would do
that- once a year burn a little incense in
front of a statue and say,”Cesar is
God!-they could go home and mind
their own business for another year

17. Christian refuse to do this, they
knew there was only one God, and
to say anything or anyone else was
a God would be a betrayal of their
friendship with God. When they
stood true and refuse to honor the
emperor as God, they got into
trouble.

18. They were put in jail ( dark, terrible
dungeons), they were sent into exile to
desolate islands where they were
forced to work in mines. And worst of
all, if they were really stubborn and still
wouldn’t deny Jesus, they were put to
death.

19. The leader of the Roman Empire did
this because they really wanted to
discourage others from following
Christianity. They also wanted to
provide entertainment for the people of
the empire. So when they executed
Christians, they often did it in public, in
the middle of huge crowds, like a big

20. There are many stories of the
deaths of Christians that have
come down to us over the
centuries, these Christians died for
their faith and still called “Martyrs”
a word that means
“witnesses” .Some of the well-
known stories are the following;

21. The four Young Women who
suf ered terribly for their faith

22. St. Lucy lost her eyes
during her torture

23. St. Agnes was Beheaded

24. St. Agatha was palced on hot
Coals

25. St. Cecilia was suffocated
and then beheaded

26. St. Timothy and St. Maura
After 20 days of marriage, they were
ordered to turn them over the sacred
books of Christian community. They
refused and brought to prison . They
were nailed on the wall of the prison
and took nine days to die

27. St. Timothy and St.
Maura

28. St. Marcellinus
Was a priest was nimprisoned during
the last major roman persecution.
While in prison he convinced many of
the loved of Jesus including his own
jailer.

29. St. Timothy and St.
Maura

30. All of these people may speak
dif erent language wear dif erent
clothes but still they have all
something in common: they are
with Jesus, and they can’t turn
their backs on him, even if it
means suf ering?

31. Question:
If you were born in the time of the
Roman Empire how would you
professed your faith?
If you stand firm, how would you
wish to die?

32. Persecution
in the Early
Church

33. Early Christians expected suffering.
Christ had died on the cross, so there
was no higher honor than to imitate
that death through accepting
martyrdom (witness by one’s blood). 1
peter 4:16 ,expressed “ if you suffer as
a Christian, do not be ashamed, but
praise God that you bear that name”

34. Why were
Christians
persecuted?

35. The roman religion was not intolerant.
Rome had accepted into its pantheon
deities from the Italian tribes and from
Asia Minor, the great territorial Gods-
such as Saturn in North Africa and
Jehovah among the Jews-were
accepted as the legal religion on the
ground of their rites.

36. CONTROVERSIAL
CONSTANTINE

37. The famous emperor
ended the persecution of
Christians. But was he a
true believer, or merely a
superstitious political
opportunist?

38. Constantine brought to an end
of Christians persecution by the
pagan roman empire,granted
“ both to Christians and to all
others fullauthority to follow
whatever worship each person
has desired.”

39. The agreement form one of the major
watersheds in the history of Christianity,
bidding farewell to the age of the
martyrs and presaging the era of the
Christian empire.

40. Constantine the Great
The first emperor of Rome to come
out unambiguously on the side of
Christian Church.
He was born on February 27, 272
in military town of Naissus-modern
name Yugoslavia.

41. His father, Constantius, was an
army of icer, Helena her mother
divorced probably 290 because of
political aspirations. Helena
became a Christian –and one of
the outsanding piety only after his
son’s conversion. St. Ignatius of
Antioch

42. “ I am the wheat of God and am
ground by the teeth of the wild
beasts, that I may be found the
pure bread of God” so wrote
Bishop Ignatius of Antioch
(Syria)as he was being taken to
Rome under close military guard.

43. Ignatius was martyred in Rome during the
reign of Emperor Trajan, and tradition holds
that he died in the colosseum. The known
“Colosseum” is located in Rome, Italy. In the
history of the church, a lot of Christians were
martuyred there and considering entertainment.
Their way of killing Christians were crucial
because some of them were fed to the wild
beast or animals. Some of them through sword.

44. St. Constantine the Great

45. St. Ignatius of Antioch

46. Thank you
and Good
Bye!