The persecution of early Christians was a process accompanying the development of religion in the past. From this perspective, a life of a missionary at the time was not easy, especially when the series of martyrdoms started with St. Stephen being the first victim of this policy initiated by Roman officials (Gonzalez, 2010). However, these occasions did not deter others from the faith but, on the contrary, increased the number of its followers. As a result, people did not abandon their views and became a significant source of inspiration for new believers. The history presents a great number of examples that served as role models for them, and some martyrs that affected the development of Christianity were women. Nevertheless, the existing literature on the topic does not distinguish them from male victims, and this omission should be rectified in this study (Gonzalez, 2010). This necessity is conditional upon the fact that the conditions of their lives were different, and the inspiration they brought was partially connected to the presence of children. From this point of view, female martyrs elicited more pity and empathy than their male counterparts did. Currently, very little is known about the specificity of these women’s influence on the development of Christianity, and its understanding will allow revealing the role of this population group in the process.
Reference
Gonzalez, J. L. (2010). The story of Christianity, volume 1: The early church to the Reformation. HarperOne.