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{{New Testament Apocrypha}}
'''Acts of the Martyrs''' (Latin '''''Acta Martyrum''''') are accounts of the suffering and death of a [[Christian martyr]] or group of
These accounts vary in authenticity
A second category, the Passiones,
A third category is accounts believed by some to be largely or purely legendary. The Acts of [[Catherine of Alexandria|Saint Catherine of Alexandria]] and those of [[Saint George]] fall into this category.<ref name="ODCC self"/>
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[[Eusebius|Eusebius of Caesarea]] was likely the first Christian author to produce a collection of acts of the martyrs.<ref name="ODCC self"/>
A related form of writing
== Origins ==
The expression '''Acta
== Division and classification ==
Given the enormous number of hagiographic texts and the heterogeneous nature of their origin, authority, and value, critics have proposed a classification to guide their study. It has been observed
According to this criterion, six groups of texts are established:
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* The official records and
* Narratives based on documents belonging to the first group or, at least, on a certain number of safe historical elements.
* The novels or hagiographic fantasies.
== Literary scheme ==
Except for the records, all of the narrative documents mentioned above offer, from a literary point of view, common characters, since they are all the result of an elaboration and compositional process typical of hagiographic literature; the tendency to the schematic form has a remote origin, whose trace already manifested in ancient texts, close to the type and narrative sincerity
In the first place, the legal tone of the Roman criminal process
* The apostle and even the small initial group of martyrs came to be united with topographically or [[Liturgy|liturgically]] close groups;
* The figure of the persecutor was typified
* The interrogation was prolonged in an inordinate way, often putting into the mouth of the martyr professions of faith imitating the [[theology]] of the time and the [[New Testament]] writings;
* The martyr was made to pronounce controversial discourses, plagiarizing the content of other works, generally
The same happened with the narrations of the pains and tortures, prolonged and multiplied without saving prodigies made by the martyr, adorned with the spectacular element provided by fantasy and [[legend]]. In this transformation and development, negative from the critical point of view, several factors influenced to a considerable degree: the spread of the cult of the [[relic]]s, with the inevitable abuses easily imaginable; veneration of the martyred saint, patron saint of the city, [[monastery]] or church, which obliged him to find or invent a living; the particularly religious and devout environment of the [[Middle Ages]], favored by the monks who were among the most active writers of the hagiographic texts.
== Compilation ==
Dispensing from the first records collected, which are incomplete and
Something similar happened in the [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Church]], where the numerous passions were collected in abbreviated form in the liturgical books, for example, in the saints (''menaea''), in which an appointment was introduced for each day of the 12 months of the year
== Hagiographic critique ==
In 1882, Edmond-Frederic Le Blant had the idea to continue and complete the compilation of Ruinart and added another group of records, which he considered authentic by the adequacy of the narrative with the Roman legal phrases.<ref>Cf. <<Les actes des martyrs. Supplement aux Acta sincera de dom Ruinart>> en ''Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres'' 30 (1882), part 2.</ref> The criterion of Le Blant is not firm and shows once again
With much greater seriousness, although very slowly, they are occupied with these works according to an organic plan by the Bollandists. In recent years, a series of principles and norms of hagiographic criticism have been exposed in relation to the records by several specialists, such as
It has been said, with a certain air of reproach, that the hagiographic criticism has been interested until the present, almost exclusively in the problems related to the authenticity and chronology of the document, neglecting the social aspect and the environment in which it was written
== Notes ==
:1.{{Note|Note1}}
:2.{{Note|Note2}} Real Academia Española. Diccionario Usual, voz "mártir".
:3.{{Note|Note3}} Cf. Martyrium Polycarpi 18.
:4.{{Note|Note4}} Cf. ''Epistola'' 12, 2: <<dies quibus excedunt adnote>>;see also ''Epistola 39, 2''.
:5.{{Note|note5}} Cf. ''Passio Probi, Tarachi et Andrinici'', BHG 1574.
:6.{{Note|note6}} Cf. ''Passio S. Symphorosae'', BHL 7971;''Acta Sanctorum''jul. IV, 355.
:7.{{Note|note7}} Cf. BHG 1331-1334.
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:11.{{Note|note11}} Cf. ''Hist. eccl., VII, apendice.''
:12.{{Note|note11}} Cf. Gregorio I, ''Registrum epistolarum''VIII,29.
:13.{{Note|note13}} Cf. ''Acta Primorum martyrum sincera'', Paris 1689.
== References ==
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* ''Acta Sanctorum'' (various editors)
* Aigrain R. (1953). ''L'hagiographie, ses sources, ses méthodes, son histoire''. Paris. Bloud & Gay.
* BHG, 3 ed., Brussels 1957
* DACL 1, 373-446
* Delehaye H. (1934). ''Cinq leçons sur la méthode hagiographique''. Brussels
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* Rütten F. (1955). ''Lateinische Märtyrerakten und Märtyrer Briefen'', 3.ª ed. Münster
* Ruiz Bueno D. (1951). ''Actas de los mártires''. Madrid. BAC.
* Schwerd, A. (1960). ''Lateinische Märtyrerakten'', Munich. BHL, 2, Brussels 1898–1901.
== External links ==
* Owen, E.C.E. (ed) (1927). [http://early.xpian.info/eng/someauthenticactsoftheearlymartyrs.html ''Some Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs'']. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
;Attribution
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