Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity

In Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity Lucy Grig focuses on both artistic and textual representations to investigate the making of martyrs in the fourth- and fifth century Latin West. She shows that this 'making' of martyrs played a crucial role in the process of Christianisation during the post-Constantinian period. She examines the writings of some of the most important figures in late antique Christianity - Augustine, Ambrose and Jerome -along with a number of anonymous, marginal and marginalised texts. The book covers such major subjects as the history of martyrdom and martyr texts and the role of images and relics in cult and representation. It also examines a number of key themes including the role of spectacle in martyr representation, the importance of suffering in the construction of Christian identity, and the interaction of text and image in the process of representation.

Between the chapters are short pieces focusing on individual martyrs (such as the African martyr bishop Cyprian, and the virgin martyr par excellence, Agnes). These sections provide close readings of the textual and material testimony, and show how politics (textual, sexual and ecclesiastical) were bound up in the making of martyrs. The book demonstrates the power of the martyrs in late antiquity, and beyond.