Who the Neomartyrs Are
The definition of the category: the word neomartyres, the three classic paths by which an Orthodox Christian came to martyrdom under Ottoman rule, the sharia apostasy law that made the boundary of the two faiths lethal — stated factually — and the count of the martyrs given as a sourced range rather than an inflated number.
Tradition: Greek / Balkan Orthodox (Pan-Orthodox in scope)
Overview
This section fixes the terms before any individual martyr is treated. Two files do the work.
The first, The Word and the Three Paths, defines neomartys — the “new” martyr who dies for Christ in the centuries after the ancient persecutions — and sets out the three overlapping paths the sources present: the Christian who had apostatized to Islam (by force, by deception, or in weakness) and then publicly returned to Christ; the Christian falsely accused of having embraced Islam; and the open confessor who proclaimed Christ, or denounced Islam, before Muslim authority. The distinctions matter, because the first and third paths raise the question of voluntary martyrdom treated in Section 06.
The second, The Apostasy Law and the Count, states the legal context factually — the prevailing interpretation of Islamic apostasy law under which the return of a convert or the confession of a former Muslim carried the death penalty — and then gives the count of the neomartyrs as a sourced range (Vaporis’s nearly two hundred documented acta), keeping sharp the difference between those the tradition names, those it documents, and those it can only estimate.
Contents
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-word-and-the-three-paths.md | Neomartys / neomartyres; the “new” martyr; the three classic paths to martyrdom; the pan-Orthodox and mixed character of the company |
| the-apostasy-law-and-the-count.md | The sharia apostasy law stated factually; the count as a sourced range; named vs documented vs estimated; the converts to Christianity among the martyrs |
See Also
- The Church Under the Ottomans — the legal and social frame
- The Sources — where these categories are transmitted
- Athos and the Preparation of Martyrs — the voluntary-martyrdom question the first and third paths raise
References
- Vaporis, Nomikos Michael. Witnesses for Christ. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000.
- Krstić, Tijana. Contested Conversions to Islam. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.
- Russell, Norman. “Christian identity, sharia law and voluntary martyrdom in the Ottoman Empire.” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 18, nos. 2–3 (2018).