Acts of the Martyrs

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Acts of the Martyrs (Latin Acta Martyrum) are accounts of the suffering and death of Christian martyrs which werets were collected and used in early Catholic church liturgies, as attested by Saint Augustine.^[1]

Their authenticity varies. The most reliable derive from accounts of trials such as that of Saint Cyprian or of the Scillitan Martyrs, although some claim that the latter has been embellished with miraculous and apocryphal material.^[1] But very few of these trial accounts survive.

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

A third category category includes accounts that are 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, which either preserved a few kernels of fact in popular or literary tradition, or were works of pure imagination. Nonetheless, the were intended was to edify rather than deceive the reader.

Romances should be separated from hagiographical forgeries, whose intent alter history by, for example, falsely attaching a saint's name to a particular place. ^[2]