It may sound odd that a young slave girl who died in AD 177 is a hero of mine. It might be stranger to say that I named my second child after Blandina—or at least after the crown that she gained by martyrdom. But she is, and I did.
So just who is Blandina? She was a young slave girl who died as a martyr in Lyons, France in AD 177. She had no Roman Citizenship, no rights as a slave, was young, and was described as having a weak body. Yet by her faith, her encouragement of the saints, and her courageous death in a Roman amphitheatre, she nurtured the faith of other Christians in their time of trial.
The historian Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 260-339) preserves the record of martyrdom. He had access to a letter that described her death as well as the death of other martyrs in Lyons—at that time called Lugdunum.[1]
This ancient letter argues that by Blandina’s feminine virtues, Christ shines forth in her as a sister in faith and a spiritual mother who nurtures the faith of other martyrs. While society increasingly rejects the virtues of sex and sees only power, offices, and authority as worthy of admiration, Blandina reminds us Christ’s strength is perfected by human weakness.
Persecution in Lyons and Vienna
Blandina lived in Lyons, France, which was then called Lugdunum, a Roman city in Gaul. As a minority movement, Christians had come under public scrutiny. The people of this city accused them of the same crime that Athens accused Socrates of: impiety, that is, not honouring the gods in civil society (Eusebius, EH 5.1.9). On top of this crime, the magistrates also charged Christians in Lugdunum with atheism—denying the gods themselves (5.1.9).
Until this point, the cities of Lugdunum (Lyons) and possibly Vienne (modern Vienna) had excluded Christians “from houses and baths and markets” and also forbade Christians “to be seen at all in any place whatever” (tr. Lake 5.1.5-6). Mobs harassed believers there.
The people of Lugdunum disliked the followers of the Way because of their impiety and atheism. Unlike today, civil religion mattered to the Romans. That Christians denied the Roman gods was a serious offence. That they did not participate in civil religion created instability in Lugdunum. It angered the populace. So much so that they dragged a number of Christians to the tribune in the marketplace. There, the tribune and chief authorities cruelly treated the Christians before summoning the governor to make a final judgment (5.1.8-9).
Something happened—quite unexpectedly we might surmise given the response—a prominent young man in Roman society spoke on behalf of the Christians. A Christian himself, known to be full of the Spirit, Vettius Epagathus became the first named Martyr. His defence of the Christians angered the city so much that they slew him. He was the first to gain the “crown of immortality.”
Afterwards, Bettius, Sanctus, Attalus, Blandina, Biblias, Pothinus, Maturus, Alexander, and Ponticus too received that crown of glory, of immortality, granted to those whose testimony led to death.
The crisis worsened after the death of Vettius for two reasons. First, about ten Christians denied Christ. While many in prison remained faithful, these ten weakened the zeal of Christians who had yet to be arrested (5.1.10).
Nevertheless, free Christians still remained with the (soon-to-be) martyrs, providing for them while in prison. Roman prisons did not provide basic food and amenities. That required outside support. Which meant, free Christians who knew the punishment for their faith would be imprisonment, torture, and death still came into prisons to serve arrested Christians there.
Likely, the first round of arrests happened to prominent Christians or at least those who spoke publicly in support of the faith. Soon Christians in general began to be arrested, and authorities even arrested their non-believing servants.
These non-believers, however, saw the tortures that awaited the saints and falsely accused Christians of both incest and cannibalism (5.1.14). This accusation amounts to the reason why the crisis worsened. Public opinion hardened against Christianity (5.1.15).
The Tortures of Blandina
Until these accusations, friends in the city might still support their Christian neighbours. But not now. The fury unleashed against Christians aimed to force believers to deny Christ (5.1.16). The letter’s author lists the names and gives a basic detail of three male martyrs: Sanctus, the deacon from Vienne; Maturus, a novice, and Attalus, ethnically a Pargamene.
Of Blandina, the author notably bypasses such a description and instead narrates her Christian courage and testimony immediately:
through [Blandina] Christ pointed out that the things among men which appear mean and obscure and contemptible with God are deemed worthy of great glory because of the love for Him shown in power and not boasted of in appearance.
For, while we all feared, and her mistress in the world, who was herself also one of the contenders among the martyrs, was in distress lest she be not able even to make her confession boldly because of weakness of body, Blandina was filled with so much strength that she was released and those who tortured her in relays in every manner from morning until evening became exhausted, even confessing of their own accord that they were beaten, since they had nothing further to do to her, and that they marveled at the fact that she was still alive, for her whole body was broken and opened, and that they testified that one form of torture was enough to drive out life, to say nothing of the different nature and number of the tortures.
But the blessed woman, like a noble athlete, renewed her strength in the confession, and her comfort and rest and release from the pain of what was happening to her was in saying: “I am a Christian woman and nothing wicked happens among us.” (tr. Roy Defarrari, 5.18.19)
Of Blandina, we learn a number of things. Since she had a mistress, Blandina was a slave. Nothing in the text suggests she was married, and so likely she was young—perhaps as young as twelve or thirteen. We don’t know her exact age.
Her “weakness of body” suggests a small, physically weak body, that of a young girl. And last, the point of this story, is that Christ “through Blandina” demonstrated that a young slave girl, which Roman men looked down upon, was “deemed worthy of great glory.” She withstood an entire day of torture, exhausting her tortures, and she only answered: “I am a Christian woman and nothing wicked happens among us.”
Because the author describes the torture of Sanctus in detail, we can guess what sort of torture Blandina received (5.1.20-24). While tortured, Sanctus revealed no information about himself except he would claim, “I am a Christian.” After regular forms of torture, the tortureres pressed heated brass against his skin to burn his flesh.
By the end of his tortures, we learn that his body “was all one wound and bruise, wrenched and torn out of human shape, but Christ suffering in him manifested great glory, overthrowing the adversary and showing for the example of the others how there is nothing fearful where there is the love of the Father nor painful where there is the glory of Christ” (tr. Lake 5.1.23). They continued to torture him, and he did not cave, eventually meeting his martyrdom in the amphitheater.
Later tortures included jailing Christians in darkness, stretching feet in stocks up to the fifth whole (dislocating joints and ruining the body), and many were strangled to death (5.1.27). However, the author notes that young Christians whose bodies had not yet fully grown died due to torture (5.1.28). This description explains why Blandina’s survival seemed miraculous because she had a small and weak body, suggesting that she too did not possess a fully grown body.
Of these tortures, the author tells us with irony that the mob believed it would be impious not to harass and kill Christians. And they further believed that only the blood of the martyrs could vindicate their pagan gods (5.1.31). Impiety and atheism were the crimes of the Christians and also the justification to harm them.
The Martyrdom of Blandina
Those who were neither strangled nor killed by torture came to the end of their suffering through the fires of martyrdom. In further acts of cruelty, those who had first denied Christ were again arrested and then accused of other crimes (falsely) like murder. They were treated even worse than the Christians, and they too had to die in the amphitheater.
There, as athletes, they would receive the prize, “the great crown of immortality” (5.1.37). As the crowd watched, wild beasts ravaged Christians. Some were also made to sit upon a heated iron chair. On this chair, their bodies were roasted (5.1.38).
Blandina received similarly harsh treatment even being “hung on a stake”:
Blandina was hung on a stake and was offered as food for the wild beasts that were let in. Since she seemed to be hanging in the form of a cross, and by her firmly intoned prayer, she inspired the combatants with great zeal, as they looked on during the contest and with their outward eyes saw through their sister Him who was crucified for them, that He might persuade those who believe in Him that everyone who suffers for the glory of Christ always has fellowship with the living God.
And when none of the wild beasts then touched her, she was taken down from the stake and again cast into the prison, being saved for another contest, that by conquering through more trials she might make the condemnation of the crooked Serpent irrevocable, and might encourage the brethren.
Although small and weak and greatly despised, she had put on the great and invincible athlete Christ, and in many contests had overcome the Adversary and through the conflict had gained the crown of immortality. (5.1.41-42)
Blandina here hung on the stake with her arms spread out like Christ on the cross. And the martyrs (“the combatants”) saw her with their “outward eyes” but perceived “through their sister Him who was crucified for them.” That gave them “great zeal” as they met their deaths for Christ.
In God’s providence, the governor paused the persecution of the Christians when he found out that one of them, Attalus, was a Roman Citizen (5.1.44) until he received word back from the Emperor. And through the courage of Blandina, Attalus, and presumably the others, the majority of those who had denied Christ once again reaffirmed their faith despite knowing that death awaited them (5.1.46).
Emperor Marcus Aurelius responded that the Christians “should be tortured to death, but that if any should recant they should be let go” (tr. Lake, 5.1.47). The governor thus judged that Roman citizens be beheaded; the rest thrown to the beasts. Yet most of those who had at first denied Christ reaffirmed that they were Christians. And this was due to the courage of Blandina and others.
Blandina, her body broken and bloody, revealed in her body the power of Christ. It inspired many to finish the race. And while she had survived the stake in the amphitheater, authorities brought her daily with a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Ponticus to watch the horrors in the amphitheater. They wanted her to know what lay ahead.
Blandina encouraged Ponticus during his time of trial and martyrdom, an act described in motherly terms despite their similarity in age. Afterwards, she finally entered into the glory that her martyr’s crown promised her:
But the blessed Blandina, last of all, like a noble mother who has encouraged her children and sent them forth triumphant to the king, herself also enduring all the conflicts of the children, hastened to them, rejoicing and glad at her departure, as if called to a marriage feast and not being thrown to the beasts.
And after the scourging, after the wild beasts, after the roasting seat, she finally was placed in a net and thrown to a bull. She was tossed about for some time by the animal, but was insensitive to what was happening to her because of her hope and hold upon what had been entrusted to her and her communion with Christ.
And she also was sacrificed, and the heathen themselves confessed that never had a woman among them suffered so many and such horrible tortures. (tr. Deferrari, 5.1.55-57)
To add insult to injury, the Romans did not let Christians have the bodies of the martyrs. They gave them to dogs, burned them up, and threw them into the Rhine. The goal was to defeat God and to prevent them from having the hope of a bodily resurrection (5.1.63).
Blandina’s Crown: Christ in her as Sister and Mother
Throughout the story, the author highlights how Christ was manifest in Blandina. She was, according to the world, nothing important: a non-citizen, a slave, and a young unmarried woman. Her body was small and weak. And yet when she hung from the stake, the Christians who faced a mortal trial saw Christ in her. Their “outward eyes saw through their sister Him who was crucified for them.”
As a sister in Christ, she also acted like a spiritual mother to those who needed encouragement. She was “like a noble mother who has encouraged her children and sent them forth triumphant to the king.”
Through the natural relations and virtues of a sister and mother, Blandina manifested Christ in her suffering. She as a sister in Christ showed Christ to her brothers. She as a mother in Christ nurtured her children as they suffered and sent them to the King.
The feminine virtues of Blandina are precisely what gave her strength. And through them, she proclaimed Christ through her patient suffering.
[1] More specifically, the letter was preserved in a larger work called the Acts of the Martyrs. While the author of this account remains unknown, I suspect that Irenaeus of Lyon, later the bishop of that city, wrote this account because Irenaeus as a presbyter (probably of Vienna before he became bishop of Lyons) was sent to Rome to deliver a letter to the church there, would continue sending letters and interacting with the Roman church in the future, and uses language, idioms, citation patterns, and scriptural citations in his known works that correspond to the letter of the Martyrs.
