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Martyrs in the Catholic Church are widely recognized as men and women who were killed for their faith.
However, that definition is not the whole picture, as the early Church considered a much broader meaning of that word.
The word “martyr” originally derived from the “Greek word martus [signifying] a witness who testifies to a fact of which he has knowledge from personal observation.” In Christian usage this was at first applied to the apostles, who witnessed first hand the life of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.
Later on in the first centuries of the Church the term was used exclusively to denote those holy men and women who gave witness to Christ by shedding their blood.
The Blessed Mother certainly qualifies for that initial definition, but St. Bernard also argued that Mary's "pierced heart," qualifies her for the second meaning as well.
Mary's martyrdom
St. Bernard comments on the Virgin Mary's martyrdom in a homily he gave for the feast of the Assumption:
The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord’s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.
He explains how intensely she suffered on account of the suffering of her Son, Jesus:
Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus – who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours – gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart.
St. Bernard then says, "Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants."
Mary may not have been a traditional martyr, but the pain she experienced through the crucifixion of her Son made her a martyr in spirit.
