Justin Martyr

Who they were

Justin was born a pagan at Flavia Neapolis in Samaria and gave himself to philosophy, convinced that its goal was the vision of God. He tried the Stoics, the Aristotelians and the Pythagoreans in turn, and was drawn for a time by the Platonists. Then, in a lonely place, as he tells in his Dialogue with Trypho, an old man led him to the Scriptures and to Christ, and he found in Christianity the true philosophy.

He taught the faith as a philosopher and left the oldest surviving description of the Eucharistic liturgy. Denounced and imprisoned as an 'atheist', an enemy of the State, he was beheaded with six companions around 165, under Marcus Aurelius.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Justin has been honoured as a martyr since his death. The Second Vatican Council cites his teaching in Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.

Why that counted as sanctity

Justin sought the truth with his whole mind until he found it in Christ, then gave his life for it. He saw every true and beautiful thing, wherever it was said, as belonging to Christians, because it comes from the Word.