Suicide is martyrdom.

In Biathanatos, John Donne observes that the plain meaning of martyr is “witness.”[1] But Donne knows that martyrdom is this and something more: witnessing that is driven, that drives itself, to the necessity of death. To be a martyr is not merely to witness. It is to testify through one’s death.

The Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas record the events of March 7, 203 AD in the amphitheater of Carthage. “Are you a Christian?” asks the Roman governor. “Christiana sum,” replies Perpetua.

She is thus condemned to death by wild animals. She is joined by Saturus, another witness. The night before the spectacle Saturus has a vision. “We had died and put off the flesh, and we began to be carried to the east by four angels … And when we were free of the world, we first saw an intense light.

And I said to Perpetua: ‘This is what the Lord promised us’ … Thanks be to God because I am happier here now than I was in the flesh.”

The narrator then reports: “when the day of their victory dawned, they marched from the prison to the amphitheater joyfully as though they were going to heaven, with calm faces, trembling, if at all, with joy rather than fear.”[2]

In Ad Martyras, Tertullian contrasts the suicides of Greek and Roman pagans, who aspired to worldly glory and succumbed to personal vanity, with Christian martyrs, who pursue only the glory of God.[3]

Donne recalls the command of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to prevent fellow Christians from interfering in his death:

I fear your charity will hurt me and make me begin my life all over again … I profess to all churches that I die willingly … Let me stoke the wild beasts with soothing words; let me entice and corrupt the beasts to devour me and to be my sepulcher; let me enjoy those beast whom I wish were much more cruel than they are, and if they will not attack me, I will provoke and attract them by force.[4]

Martyrdom is Christ-like. Martyrdom is testimony as blood beyond mere words.

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[1] Donne, Biathanatos, 23.
[2] Droge and Tabor, 2
[3] Tertullian, Ad Martyras,151-8.
[4] Donne, 25. Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories.