My kids love the martyrs. For whatever reason, Will and G are both drawn to the gruesome tales of the courageous men and women who gave their lives for Christ. We didn’t set out to intentionally focus on the martyrs in our family, but just like some kids like scary stories and some kids like the original fairy tales, my kids love the tales of the martyrs.
Mark and I realized awhile ago, that if we were aiming to live more liturgically, then we had to acknowledge the martyrs, if only because our kids are going to ask why the priest is wearing red at mass. It would be easy to try to gently tiptoe around them. There are so many saints, you could choose several feast days a month without picking any who suffered martyrdom. I’d argue though, that the martyrs aren’t saints we should shy away from, but rather, saints that we should especially highlight in light of our modern culture.
These are men and women of great courage. We live in a world which prizes relativism and shifting morals. Our martyrs are those who held onto their beliefs unto death, in the face of all opposition, with the choice of recanting and living happily ever after in front of them, these saints said, Jesus is my choice. He is worth it.
My kids are going to face substantial cultural opposition to their faith if they embrace the Catholic Church. I want them to know the men and women who came before them who had to do the same. I want them to know these stories so they don’t feel alone, so that they have people to turn to for prayer when they’re in a tough situation.
But what about all that violence? That’s the question I’ve gotten asked the most (usually as my kids are coloring a picture of decapitated St. Denis). And it’s a fair one. The thing is though, a lot of violence is about context. I can’t shield my kids entirely from it because the reality of our fallen world is that terrible things happen. And children’s worlds aren’t free from it. Kid’s shows, children’s movies, fairy tales and superheros alike- there is good and evil shown to them in varying degrees.
Our approach goes something like this: We tell the story of the saint’s life, the whole story, not just end. When we come to the part where he or she is killed, we explain it in a very matter-of-fact fashion giving them the who, what, where, when, and why. The aim isn’t to scare them or scar them, it’s to share faith and help them to make a new friend in Heaven. Then we talk about what happens next- the person goes to Heaven and is eternally with God. That’s the biggest thing for us- that we put the focus on the saint’s life and their eternal reward for that life.
G is naturally drawn to anything to do with Faith. William on the other hand is a little harder to engage. But he finds martyrs fascinating, and I’m not above using his interests to lead him deeper into faith. Telling the story of a saint, Ignatius of Antioch for example, can be a jumping off point for all sorts of great conversation about what it means to love Jesus.
I’d love to hear more from you- how do you teach your kids about the tricky subjects like martyrs? If you’ve got any tips or stories to share, drop a comment!
And if you’re looking for some great coloring pages of some of our favorite martyrs, check out Rebecca’s Monsters and Martyrdom’s Collection. It’s amazing.
I love this! Several of my kids’ favourite saints are martyrs too. And while I sometimes don’t go into all the details of the martyrdom (some of the Romans were very creative with torture and ways of killing people), we do talk about how various saints died for Christ. I agree with you that violence for the sake of violence is not okay (and there’s too much of that in our world), but when we discuss the violence in the context of faith, heaven, and the saint’s courage, then it’s not just about the violence. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!