20th Century Martyrs |
In 1998, ten 20th century Christian martyrs were commemorated with statues at Westminster Abbey in London. The martyrs chosen were from around the world and of various denominations.
The Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Manche Masemola, a Anglican catechumen from South Africa was killed in 1928 by her parents at the age of 16 for converting to Christianity.
Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Lucian Tapiede, an Anglican from Papua New Guinea, who was killed during the Japanese invasion in 1941.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian, was hanged in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 for his participation in a Protestant resistance movement. However, it was his work as a spiritual writer, musician and author of fiction and poetry that had been his powerful weapon.
Esther John, a Presbyterian evangelist from Pakistan, was allegedly killed by a Muslim fanatic in 1960.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Probably the most famous of the martyrs took religion as the ideological platform to bring about change in the U.S. in the 1960s. A Baptist pastor, he preached within a political context of creating equal voting and civil rights for the black community. He believed fervently in passive resistance, and his assassination in 1968, made him a symbol of the struggle for social change.
Wang Zhiming, killed in 1972 during the Chinese cultural revolution. He was a pastor and evangelist.
Janani Luwum, assassinated in 1977, during the rule of Idi Amin, in Uganda, for being an Anglican Archbishop.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero, San Salvador's Roman Catholic Archbishop, a critic of the military government, was murdered during a religious service.
