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the Apostles, mirrors the passion of Christ. We are told in Acts that,
“Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among
the people”7 – just as Jesus is described in the Gospels. Stephen, like
Jesus, is arrested and brought before the Council; like Jesus, he is ac-
cused by false witnesses. At the conclusion of his trial he cries out “I see
the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of
God!”8 , just as Jesus, at the end of his trial, said “from now on the Son
of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God”9. Like Je-
sus, Stephen is taken outside the city to be killed, and like Jesus he prays
for his murderers to be forgiven. Stephen in his witness and death be-
comes an enacted icon of Christ, conformed to his image.

So already in the New Testament the martyrs become the type
and pattern of Christian sanctity. The accounts of the martyrdoms of
Saints Polycarp and Ignatius, immediately after the apostolic age, con-
tinue this pattern. Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was thrown to the
lions in the Coliseum, in 117. After his death his followers wrote, “Only
the hardest bits of his holy remains had escaped the jaws of the beasts…
These pieces were carried o? and put into a co?n. Because of the grace
remaining in the martyr they were an inestimable treasure for the holy
congregation of the faithful.”10 In other words, his bones had become
holy relics. And these remains were carried back to Antioch in a trium-
phant procession, like that of a conquering hero.

Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was burned at the stake in the
year 156. Witnesses recorded that his body seemed untouched by the
?ames until he was killed by a spear thrust, and then, afterwards, “tak-
ing up his bones, more precious than the richest jewels and tried above
gold, we placed them in a spot worthy of them. There with joy and
gladness we shall be permitted by the Lord to celebrate the anniversary
of his martyrdom.”11 And that anniversary celebration would undoubt-

7 Acts 6:8
8 Acts 7:56
9 Luke 22:69
10 James Bentley, Restless Bones – the Story of Relics, Constable, 1985, p37
11 Ibid, p38

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