Opinion | For Lent, I’m Studying Up on the Christian Saints

Throughout Lent, I’ve stepped up my studying in regards to the lives of Christian saints. The train has been unusually dispiriting, not as a result of their advantage isn’t heroic, however as a result of it’s so heroic. That is very true for the lives of the martyrs, those that died for his or her religion.

Take into account St. Lawrence, the third-century deacon who was grilled alive underneath order of Roman Emperor Valerian. He reportedly advised his torturers, “Flip me over; I’m accomplished on this aspect.” Or St. Thomas Extra, King Henry VIII’s lord chancellor, who joked along with his executioner in 1535 that extra help could be wanted as much as the scaffold than down from it.