Acts of the Martyrs

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Acts of the Martyrs (Latin Acta Martyrum) are accounts of the suffering and death of a Christian martyr or group of martyrs. These accounts were collected and used in church liturgies from early times as attested by Saint Augustine.^[1]

These accounts vary in authenticity. The most reliable are from accounts of trials, but very few of them have survived. Perhaps the best example is the account of Saint Cyprian. The account of the Scillitan Martyrs is based on trial records, although some claim it has been embellished with miraculous and apocryphal material.^[1]

A second category, the Passiones, include the martyrdoms of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp, the Martyrs of Lyons, the famous Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas, and the Passion of Saint Irenaeus. In these accounts, miraculous elements are restricted—a feature that proved unpopular, and was often later embellished with legendary material.^[1]

A third category is accounts believed by some to be largely or purely legendary. The Acts of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and those of Saint George fall into this category.^[1]

Eusebius of Caesarea was likely the first Christian author to produce a collection of acts of the martyrs.^[1]

A related form of writing was chivalric romances, either written around a few real facts that have been preserved in popular or literary tradition or pure works of the imagination containing no real facts whatsoever. Nonetheless, romances were written with the intention of edifying rather than deceiving the reader. Romances can be contrasted with hagiographical forgeries (Acts, Passions, Lives, Legends, and Translations) which have been written with the express purpose of perverting history, such as the legends and translations falsely attaching a saint's name to a given church or city. These were meant to edify and not instruct, and were meant to be read as romances and not as history. ^[2]