LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

 

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Saint Justin, Martyr

Toward the middle of the second century, there came into the young Christian community a seeker for truth whose wide interests, noble spirit, and able mind, greatly enriched it.

Justin was born into a Greek-speaking pagan family about the year 110 in Samaria. He was educated in Greek philosophy but, like St. Augustine after him, was left restless by that knowledge. During a walk along a beach at Ephesus, he fell in with a stranger who told him about Christ. “Straightway a flame was kindled in my soul,” he writes, “and a love of the prophets and those who were friends of Christ possessed me.” He became a Christian as a result of that encounter, and thereafter regarded Christianity as “the only safe and profitable philosophy.”

About 150, Justin moved to Rome and started a school to teach Christian philosophy. He wrote three books which are known to us, two of which give us important insights into both the developing theology and liturgical practices of the early Church.

While teaching at Rome, Justin engaged in a public debate during which he accused his opponent, a philosopher of the Cynic school, of ignorance and immorality. As a result, he was sued and he and six of his students were arrested. When the judge gave them the choice of renouncing their Christian faith or being put to death, all refused to abandon Christ and so were executed in the year 167.


 

Collect for the Feast of Saint Justin the Martyr (June 1st)

Almighty and everlasting God, you found your martyr Justin wandering from teacher to teacher, seeking the true God, and you revealed to him the sublime wisdom of your eternal Word: Grant that all who seek you, or a deeper knowledge of you, may find and be found by you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 

Adapted from “Lesser Feasts and Fasts – A. T. K. Z.+

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To learn more of St. Justin the Martyr from Wikipedia.org, click here.

 

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM