Gruesome Deaths and Celibate Lives: Christian Martyrs and Acsetics

From the ranks of the early Christian faithful emerged colourful personalities who seized the imagination and held the attention of the rest of their community. This they achieved either by their readiness in times of persecution to die for their faith as martyrs or by their sometimes extravagant efforts to subsume their physical desires and needs to spiritual ends as ascetics. Their actions not only inspired contemporaries; they played a key role in the development of the Christian faith and…