Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: ANCIENT (06/04/20)
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TITLE: MARTYRDOM IN ROME | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn (Marolyn) Tocker
06/11/20 -
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I joined a guided group tour inside and followed them up into the seating area overlooking the amphitheater. Gladiator fights, executions, and images of Christians killed in the most barbaric ways for the entertainment of bloodthirsty spectators floated through my mind.
“Christians were never killed here but we’ve been taught that they were.” said the guide, as if it was a myth.
“There's historical documentation isn't there?” I asked.
She didn’t reply but moved on to another subject.
Even if Christians hadn’t been martyred there, it had happened elsewhere.
Earlier that morning, I had visited The Catacombs of San Callisto, an underground burial site for Jews, Christians, and pagans. Many Christian martyrs are buried there.
As I walked slowly along the dark, moist passageways, I gazed at the tombs, sometimes lingering, wondering if martyrs were amongst them. Christians also hid in the Catacombs to escape persecution. I felt that I was standing on holy ground.
I had time to visit one more site. The bus dropped me off at the entrance to the Mamertine (Mamertinum) Prison. Tradition says that the Apostles Peter and Paul were imprisoned there until the time of their execution. Paul was beheaded somewhere else in Rome, and Peter was crucified upside down at the Circus Maximus. A Catholic church, San Giuseppe del Falegnami, now sits on top of the prison.
Christians have been martyred in several countries of the world for some time, and it continues. Now is the time to prepare.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (NKJV Rev 12:11)
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Thanks for sharing.