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pffeferneuse

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Hello! Can anyone tell me if any christians sent to the coliseum (lions, etc.) survived? (My little theologians asked this.)🙂
 
Interesting question. I hope there is some historian out there who has the answer.

My totally uneducated guess is that a few might have. Although it would have had to been very difficult. Like a few people escaped the nightmares of the holocaust. Perhaps some were forced into labor beneath the arenas. Maybe there were compassionate or secret Christians guards who helped some escape.

Boy! Wouldn’t that make a wonderful story.
 
pffeferneuse said:
Hello! Can anyone tell me if any christians sent to the coliseum (lions, etc.) survived? (My little theologians asked this.)🙂
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Even if they did survive they would still have to die someday and meet the Lord.

The martyrs have been glorified by Christ and in ecstatic happiness with the Lord forever.
 
If they went into the arena with lions, no. For of they survived, they were executed.

There may be tales of sympathizers and escapes, but as yet, I’m not aware of any.
 
There are many traditions/legends of people surviving initial attempts at martyrdom resulting in many conversions and then being martyred later.

St. Sebastian was sentenced to be killed by arrows but survived. He was picked up when left for dead by a pious widow and healed. He then decided to go straight to the emperor to tell him he was wrong. The emperor first being terrified then sentenced him to be beaten to death, which he did not survive.

The story about St. Thecla says they tried killing her multiple times but she survived and lived to an old age. I read about her in 57 Stories of Saints
by Eileen Heffernan which is a book about saints for kids that I really enjoyed. Wikipedia gives a different version of her story that I had never read before I looked her up just now.
 
pffeferneuse said:
Hello! Can anyone tell me if any christians sent to the coliseum (lions, etc.) survived? (My little theologians asked this.)🙂
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It’s interesting that at the Colosseum, the tour guides are emphatic that Christians were not martyred there or thrown to the lions. They claim these are myths and there’s no historical evidence that Ignasius of Antioch or others died at the Colosseum. However, countless Christians were horribly persecuted throughout the Roman empire and many died elsewhere in Rome such as at Circus Maximus. Nero had Christians lit on fire and made into human torches… and he did indeed dressed them in animal skins and feed them to wild dogs (and perhaps lions?), and of course, had them crucified or beheaded.

No survivors.
 
pffeferneuse said:
Hello! Can anyone tell me if any christians sent to the coliseum (lions, etc.) survived? (My little theologians asked this.)🙂
Click to expand...
I remember seeing a film a Christian fighting Lions,Christian won .I suppose some may have survived and were granted freedom if they killed lions in Coliseums

Look up The Christian Martyrs Of Coliseum

St John Ogilvie Martyr Pray For Us
 
=pffeferneuse;11815874]Hello! Can anyone tell me if any christians sent to the coliseum (lions, etc.) survived? (My little theologians asked this.)🙂
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It’s possible but very unlikey. It was a common DEATH sentence:o
 
I believe(d) the stories about the martyrs being killed in the colliseum. What johnny-come-lately has evidence that these did not occur? Sounds like a devil of a story to me.
 
The movie “Demetrius and the Gladiators” showed many Christians training and fighting in the arenas as early as Caligula’s reign. That would have been only a few years after Christ was crucified.
 
The Apostle John was sentenced to be boiled in oil (deep-fried) and survived it, he was then sentenced to exile on Patmos where he wrote Revelation and perhaps his other works.
 
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