Sophia and her daughters lived in Italy in the second century, her teenaged daughters were tortured and beheaded for confessing the faith. Sophia mourned at their grave for three days before dying of grief.
I hate to say it but I think this one is more shrouded by myth and tradition than most. The point to be sure of the narrative is that Sophia suffered as much with her daughters for the faith, even though she was physically unharmed. What would it have taken for her to have intervened? Could she have done (probably not)?
The point of being a martyr, or a confessor, is being steadfast in the faith – not out of stubbornness, but out of conviction. We often hear the evangelical phrase “I’ve accepted Jesus into my heart” – and while I would never use the phrase because it has emotional overtones un-related to faith in Christ, and the practice of his teaching – it does speak to that sense of “conviction” in a convenient manner.
Our stories about the martyrs are not – as is popularly believed – about “suffering”. The medieval cult of suffering is aborrant, and unhealthy – totally at odds with the Gospel teaching. The martyrs suffering is not about abusing their bodies for Jesus – it is about that strong sense of conviction in the “rightness” or “truth” of the Gospel.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.