Question Two: On the Act of Fortitude or On Martyrdom

S. Th. II-II, q. 124.

908. Martyrdom is the real testimony of Christian truth attacked, through the tolerance of bodily death. For this three conditions are required:

1. That someone truly suffer bodily death. For the martyr is the most perfect witness, who professes that all visible things are to be contemned on account of Christ (Heb. XI); but he who still remains in bodily life has not yet shown that he despises all earthly things on account of Christ (a. 4).

Hence a) the desire of martyrdom does not suffice, although it participates in its merit; b) those who have crucified their flesh through graver penances are not true martyrs; c) and those upon whom a sufficient cause of death was inflicted but who were miraculously preserved from death are not martyrs in the perfect and complete sense, although they have the merit of martyrdom; d) and the Blessed Virgin is not called martyr properly, but according to likeness (a. 4, ad 1): for no cause of bodily death was inflicted on her, but only a most vehement torment of soul, although she thus suffered more than martyrs and thus is eminently queen of martyrs.

2. That someone undergo death inflicted by an enemy in hatred of Christian truth, whether directly for the faith to be believed, or indirectly and implicitly for the faith to be enacted, or for every Christian virtue to be exercised or sin to be avoided, but on account of God. St. Thomas shows this thus, a. 5:

"Martyrs are so called as witnesses, because, namely, by their bodily sufferings even unto death they bear testimony to truth, not to any truth whatever, but to the truth which is according to piety, which has become known to us through Christ; hence martyrs are also called, as it were, witnesses of Him. But truth of this sort is the truth of faith. And therefore the cause of any martyrdom is the truth of faith. But to the truth of faith there pertains not only the very belief of the heart, but also exterior protestation; which indeed is made not only by words, by which someone confesses the faith, but also by deeds, by which someone shows that he has faith... And therefore the works of all virtues, according as they are referred to God, are certain protestations of faith, through which it becomes known to us that God requires works of this sort from us and rewards us for them, and according to this they can be the cause of martyrdom. Hence also the martyrdom of Blessed John the Baptist is celebrated in the Church, who sustained death not for denying the faith but for reproving adultery."

Hence they are not martyrs in the strict sense:

a) those who tolerate death on account of sickness contracted from the care of lepers or of those infected with plague, undertaken on account of love of God; b) those who underwent death on account of natural truths, for example, of geometry or of another profane science; c) those who underwent death on account of heresy, as J. Hus; d) those who are killed for the fatherland in a war, even a just one, which they must undergo, even if they intend to die on account of love of virtue, because death is not inflicted on them in hatred of virtue, at least ordinarily; e) those who killed themselves for preserving Christian virtue: for suicide is a sin, unless they are excused by good faith or by a special instinct of the Holy Spirit (a. 1, ad 2).

3. That death be accepted voluntarily from the motive of faith or of the virtue attacked. Hence if an adult is killed in sleep for the cause of faith, without having thought about martyrdom, he does not seem to be a martyr, whatever Cajetan may have said (in a. 2).

Infants who are killed in hatred of faith or of Christ are called martyrs, because in them the will is supplied by the special grace of Baptism: "It must be said," says St. Thomas, a. 1, ad 1, "that the glory of martyrdom which in others their own will merits, those little ones killed attained through the grace of God. For the pouring out of blood on account of Christ takes the place of baptism. Hence just as in baptized children the merit of Christ operates through baptismal grace for obtaining glory, so also in those killed on account of Christ the merit of the martyrdom of Christ operates for obtaining the palm of martyrdom."

909. Martyrdom is an act of the virtue of fortitude. - It is an act of virtue, because it pertains to the account of martyrdom to stand firmly against the attacks of persecutors in truth and virtue, which is the good of reason; but it belongs to virtue to strengthen in the good of reason. Hence to it is promised the reward of beatitude, which is not owed except to acts of virtue, Mt. V, 10: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (a. 1).

It is properly an act of fortitude. For it pertains to fortitude to confirm man in the good of virtue against dangers of death, especially that death which is in war (n. 906, 2). But it is manifest that in martyrdom man is firmly confirmed in the good of virtue, while he does not desert faith and virtue on account of dangers of death which threaten from persecutors in a certain particular combat. Hence it is manifest that martyrdom is an act of fortitude; and therefore concerning martyrs the Church sings: They were made strong in war (a. 2).

Hence a) it is an act elicited by fortitude, but commanded by the virtue on account of whose motive, or for which, it is sustained as an end: by faith, religion, justice, chastity, etc., or also by charity toward God, by which it is most apt to be commanded, insofar as it is the greatest sign of love, according to the words of Christ, John XV, 13: Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends; b) it is not an act of the greatest perfection if it is considered according to its proper species, respectively to the virtue by which it is elicited, because fortitude is not the greatest of the virtues; yet in the case in which it is commanded by charity of God, it can be called an act of the greatest perfection, insofar as it is the greatest sign of love toward God (a. 3).

910. Efficacy of martyrdom. - Martyrdom, because it is an imitation of the very passion of Christ, justifies the sinner, whether baptized or not baptized, whether adult or little child, as is clear from the perpetual doctrine of the Church.

Its efficacy is as if from the work worked: namely, martyrdom is as it were baptism, whence it is called baptism of blood. Hence for obtaining justification from martyrdom, no disposition is required in children; in adults that disposition suffices which is necessary with the sacrament, namely, sincere attrition for sins committed, which lays aside every affection for sin and retracts sin.

Hence 1. mere death on account of Christ does not suffice, for it can be with an obstacle to justification, or with affection for sin; hence in I Cor. XIII, 3 it is said: "If I should deliver my body, so that I burn, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing";

2. nevertheless perfect contrition or an act of charity is not required, because thus man is justified from the work of the worker even without martyrdom; hence if it were required, no special efficacy would belong to martyrdom; yet the influx of charity is necessary that martyrdom also have merit;

3. but imperfect contrition suffices, in the same way as is explained in the treatise on Penance; because by such contrition every obstacle to justification is removed; hence, it being given, in martyrdom charity is infused into the sinner. And so martyrdom:

a) deletes all mortal sins, because the obstacle of affection for sin was removed by attrition;

b) also deletes every venial fault and every temporal punishment; and this effect, if an obstacle is present on account of affection for venial sin, is produced in the first instant after death, when the obstacle is removed by an act of perfect charity. Hence Innocent III: "He does injury to a martyr who prays for a martyr";

c) also confers in heaven a special crown or aureole, that is, a special joy concerning the most excellent and most difficult victory carried off from the world, in the same way as it is given to confessors and virgins on account of their special victory over the devil or over carnal pleasure; yet the aureole of martyrdom is superior to these.

Yet in infants there is not a proper battle and therefore not victory; hence in them there is not an aureole properly so called; nevertheless they participate in it in some way, insofar as they especially rejoice that they were killed in the service of Christ.