Questions about martydom

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alright just a few questions on this topic maybe you can help me out i guess this is a good place to post this but i just heard this story from someone i know well kinda just meet again. its one of those people you know but never see. Anyway this women is from Poland and she grew up right after WWII and during the USSR control of Poland. But she had two priests as uncles, one was killed during the war in I think a USSR death camp or something, the other was tortured and imprisoned multiple times. But lived until old age.

so what would be the conditions for person number one, the person who was killed, to be considered a martyr for the faith?

is it possible for person number 2 the person who lived to be considered a martyr?

is it possible for a priest to be murdered and not be considered a martyr?

I think that’s it thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut. I’m not going to do anything with this just want to know to know. Thanks.
 
newadvent.org/cathen/09736b.htm

It depends on the conditions of their death - but if (and I assume they probably were) they were killed as a result of defending their knowledge/belief of Christ - they would be considered a martyr as far as I know. Although one lived - - - You could call someone a martyr of the faith if they lived their lives being persecuted for their faith… I’m not sure though if they were only persecuted for a time… I don’t know enough about the circumstances to say - but it might be worth pursuing.

My husband’s best friend’s family advanced the cause of canonization of two family members - one of which was canonized this past October (Andre M. Bessette) and another which has not begun the process yet, but is under consideration.

There are so many saints - SO many we are not even aware of… Find out as much as you can and try to advance their cause if you see the possibility, b/c they are still servants, whether in this life or in the ‘hereafter’ - they are still in communion with us and are very instrumental in our salvation.

Thanks~
 
catholictiger said:
alright just a few questions on this topic maybe you can help me out i guess this is a good place to post this but i just heard this story from someone i know well kinda just meet again. its one of those people you know but never see. Anyway this women is from Poland and she grew up right after WWII and during the USSR control of Poland. But she had two priests as uncles, one was killed during the war in I think a USSR death camp or something, the other was tortured and imprisoned multiple times. But lived until old age.

so what would be the conditions for person number one, the person who was killed, to be considered a martyr for the faith?
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It would have to be established that his death was connected with his faith. I.e., that he died because he upheld the faith, or (as in the case of St. Maximilian Kolbe) because of an action he took that was motivated by his faith (SMK, a priest in Auschwitz camp, offered his life in the place of another man).

It is not enough simply to be a Catholic who was in the wrong place (or a citizen of the wrong side) at the wrong time. The faith must be why one has died.
is it possible for person number 2 the person who lived to be considered a martyr?
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The Catholic Church has a category called “white martyrdom.” As distinct from the “red martyrdom” of execution, “white martyrs” were not put to death, but suffered extreme physical mistreatment, as a result of practicing their faith, such that they later die.

Since you say that this man lived into old age, I’d say it is unlikely for him to be a white martyr. But I couldn’t know for sure based of what you wrote.
is it possible for a priest to be murdered and not be considered a martyr?
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I think that’s it thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut. I’m not going to do anything with this just want to know to know. Thanks.
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It’s certainly possible. Priests can be killed for the same reasons anybody else is killed. If someone who is a priest is killed by muggers, or in random violence, he would not automatically be a martyr. But if, say, he died protecting another person from the violence, he might well be one.

God Bless and ICXC NIKA.
 
catholictiger said:
is it possible for person number 2 the person who lived to be considered a martyr?
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I don’t know about nowadays but in the early centuries Person Number 2 would probably have been called a confessor, an honorary title given to “those brave champions of the Faith who had confessed Christ publicly in time of persecution and had been punished with imprisonment, torture, exile, or labor in the mines, remaining faithful in their confession until the end of their lives.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, “Confessor”)
 
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