Posted on

Martyrdom and Eucharist

BMCR reviews a book that looks very interesting: The Great Persecution: The Proceedings of the Fifth Patristic Conference, Maynooth, 2003. Most interesting to me is the reviewer’s summary of one of the contributions:

The final two chapters before the conclusion, “Imitating the mysteries that you celebrate: martyrdom and Eucharist in the early Patristic period,” by Finbarr G. Clancy and “The origin of the cult of St George” by David Woods continue the examination of Christian sources relating to martyrdom. Clancy attempts to “enter into the mind of the persecuted and describe something of the spiritual motivation” that lead to Christian martyrdom (107), with a focus on the earlier martyrs Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Cyprian of Carthage, and concludes with Augustine of Hippo who provided the Church with so much of its theological understanding of martyrdom. As Clancy demonstrates, the martyrs served an important function in the liturgical life of the Church, for “The martyrs were truly fed at the Lord’s table and went forth not only to kiss the face of the earth, but also to water it with their blood” (139).

This is a common theme in the Fathers — the relationship between martyrdom and Eucharist — and so it’s a common theme on this blog. I discuss it in several posts, including one that features Pope Benedict’s long treatment of it in a recent document. It takes up the better part of a chapter in my book The Resilient Church. And it’s the subject of “The Roman Martyrs and Their Mass,” a talk I gave in Rome in 2005, which is on my audio page.

Suitable material for the feast of St. Cyprian, the third-century martyr who composed the first treatise on the Eucharist.