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Thomas A Beckett (1118-70) - Archbishop of Canterbury who infuriated King Henry II by placing the Church above the King. Beckett was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on the indirect orders of the King. |
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Thomas More (1478 - 1535) Leading servant to King Henry VIII - Eventually beheaded for his refusal to accept Henry VIII's rejection of the Catholic Church and Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn. |
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Joan of Arc -(1412 – 1431) Joan of Arc received Divine messages which helped the Dauphin of France to drive out the English from parts of France. She was arrested for her 'heterodox religious beliefs'. She was burnt at the stake for refusing to recant her experiences and communion with God. |
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The Oxford Martyrs - Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, and the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. They were burned at the Stake in Oxford 1555 for refusing to renounce their Protestant faith and accept the Roman Catholic faith of Queen Mary I. |
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Saint Peter (? - 65 AD), The leading apostle of Jesus Christ. Legend says he was crucified upside-down by the Romans. He asked to be crucified upside down so as not to copy the crucifixion of Jesus. |
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Maximilian Kolbe (1894- 1941) A Polish Franciscan friar. He was arrested by the Nazi's for sheltering refugees, from the Nazi's. He was executed at Auschwitz concentration camp after volunteering to take the place of a man who feared death. |
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (1906 - 1945) A German Lutheran Pastor who was a leading opponent of Hitler and the Nazis. He was eventually arrested and died in a concentration camp before the end of the war. |
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William Tyndale (1494–1536 ) was one of the first persons to print the Bible in English. Executed for blasphemy after years of avoiding capture. |
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Mansoor Al-Hallaj (858 – 922) A Sufi mystic who practised mysticism and preached a radical philosophy based on his spiritual experiences. Al-Hallaj claimed that in his mystical experiences he realised that 'I am the Truth'. He was sentenced to death for blasphemy, but during a prolonged execution, he retained his equanimity and faith. |
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Thich Quang Duc, (1897 - 1963) was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. He burnt himself to death (self-immolation) at an intersection in Saigon on June 11, 1963. He was protesting about the treatment of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. |
- St. Stephen as recorded in the Acts 6:8–8:3, the first Christian Martyr.
- James the Great (Son of Zebedee) was beheaded in 44 A.D.
- Philip the Apostle was crucified in 54 A.D.
- Matthew the Evangelist killed with a halberd in 60 A.D.
- James the Just, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned.
- Matthias was stoned and beheaded.
- Saint Andrew, St. Peter's brother, was crucified.
- Saint Mark was dragged in the streets until his death
- Edith Stein (Carmelite nun, died at Auschwitz), 1942