Images of Martyrdom in the Sequences of Adam of St Victor

This article presents the various descriptions of martyrdom in antiquity and the Middle Ages contained in the Sequences of Adam of St Victor. In them, the author draws attention to the value of martyrdom. The functions of the extremely bloody descriptions depicting death in defence of the faith were as follows: to indicate the need for asceticism in Christian life, to valiantly profess and defend the faith, to live according to the precepts of the Gospel, to warn against moral disorder. In addition, the sequences were intended to be an encouragement to fight, a motif popular in the Middle Ages; man was to become not only an athleta Christi, a warrior for Christ, but a true miles Christi, a soldier, ready in the name of love and fidelity to Christ to fight in defence of the faith, but above all to give his own life for the Saviour.