Making Secular Martyrs: Ascesis, Apostleship, and Revolution (Southern Europe, 1820–1870)

This article analyzes how martyrdom progressively diverged from heroism to become an autonomous category of political discourse in nineteenth-century southern European Catholic societies. It argues that the secularization and politicization of Catholic asceticism played a central role in this process, which culminated in the martyr’s moment of agony and raised the question of the voluntary dimension of martyrdom. The analysis draws on a wide range of political martyrologies, funeral orations, and press reports, and focuses mostly on the Spanish and Italian cases, where martyrdom gained greatest prominence in the political sphere and gave rise to the most explicit theoretical expositions. It highlights the extent to which martyrdom was transformed into a powerful tool of legitimization and mobilization centered on willing self-denial and self-sacrifice for a cause or community. By reassessing secular martyrdom in relation to its religious substrate, this article seeks to reconsider sacrifice, holiness, and memory within Southern European Romanticism, shedding new light on the dynamics of secularization in post-revolutionary Europe.