On International Women’s Day, which is celebrated each year around the world on 8 March, I happened to listen to a lecture featuring a section on Christian women who lived in the second century. Many of our female forebears of faith will never gain fame this side of heaven. But there is one who has earned a reputation as one of the bravest Christian martyrs in history. Her name is Blandina and you might like to grab for the tissue box as you read her heartbreakingly beautiful story:
It was the year 177 AD in Lyons, Gaul (modern day France). Christianity was only 25 years old in the region and alongside rapid growth, severe persecution had also sprung up. Persecution morphed into wicked ‘holiday entertainment’ that year when on 1 August, games were held to celebrate the greatness of Rome and the emperor. Many Christians were falsely accused of treacherous crimes against the Empire and thrown into prison. Men, women, boys, girls, young and old – none were exempt from the fury of the mob and the blood lust entertainment they craved.
Blandina was a 15-year-old servant girl who had been arrested, along with her master, and thrown into a small, dark, hot prison known as a ‘human barbeque’. There, she endured four days of unimaginable torture – all for giving her allegiance to Jesus Christ. According to the records we have through the historian Eusebuis, her torturers exhausted themselves and ran out of barbaric things to do to her. All throughout her ordeal, she answered with clarity: ‘I am a Christian, and we commit no wrong-doing.’ Blandina was eventually brought into the stadium and suspended on a stake where lions were let loose. But like faithful Daniel before her, she responded with prayer rather than terror. That day, God shut the lion’s mouths and they did not devour her.
The crowds were amazed at this young woman’s bravery. Never before had they witnessed someone put through so much pain and yet remain so constant. What a witness of the love of Christ! Days later, after enduring even more torture and being forced to witness the horrific deaths of her fellow believers, on the last day of the contest she was executed in the most vicious manner as the last of the band of Lyon martyrs.
Witnesses to Blandina’s unspeakable torture and martyrdom noted the dignified way this slave girl – one with no rights and no value within her culture – endured until the end. It was recorded that she faced her death with nobility and the kind of joy a bride possesses as she prepares for her wedding feast!
I was an eyewitness to the noble and courageous faith of another 15-year-old girl who also endured much suffering. Her name was Bethany Joy. Her suffering, some 1800+ years later than Blandina’s, was of a different nature, and yet there is a Christ-filled reminiscence of Blandina’s story that weaves their lives together. Both were bravehearted in the face of bodily injustice and pain. Both loved Jesus more than anything this world offered them. Both were willing to be humbled for the sake of others, trusting Jesus to raise them up in his time. Both left their earthly bodies giving God praise, and both offered themselves up as beautiful brides to Jesus. Both will be honoured in the Kingdom of God as obedient daughters of their King.
One I knew intimately as my beloved daughter.
One I will someday enjoy getting to know as an esteemed sister.
Both deserve admiration as young women who lived and died to the glory of God.
Oh Jesus, grant me the same courage to BE Bravehearted like them.
‘… they have defeated him (the accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.’ Rev 12:11 (95 AD)
Saint Blandina and her fellow bravehearts are memorialised at the place of their martyrdom in the ancient amphitheatre at Lyons.
She is remembered each year on 2 June.
Bethany Joy Wake is remembered each year on 31 March with a gift to support her legacy with CBM Australia. https://www.cbm.org.au/stories/bethany-wake-fund