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by Robert Royal (Author)
This book is the thundering voice of the martyrs of our time. Though mostly overlooked, the harrowing stories of hundreds of thousands of fellow Christians from around the world who gave their lives for the Faith in recent years -- including in full-scale genocides of Christians in several countries -- are a part of our history crying out to be told.
Here is that history. Robert Royal chronicles the heartrending stories of heroic priests, religious, and laypeople who are being brutally persecuted, tortured, and martyred today by various groups, including Islamists, criminal gangs, political extremists, and satanic cults. He reveals how thousands more are right now living courageously under oppressive regimes facing similar threats and dangers daily.These are our brothers and sisters in the Faith, the saints in our midst! You will learn about them, the role spiritual combat plays in their persecution, and how you can help alleviate their suffering. While doing so you will also discover:
- How the early Christian martyrs provided one of the first "books of spirituality"
- The true definition of a Christian martyr and five criteria to be considered a martyr
- Teachings of recent popes on the new martyrdom, including oblatio vitae
- How "blasphemy laws" are misconstrued to accuse and condemn Christians unjustly
- The most dangerous place to be a Catholic priest (You will be shocked!)
- The country where nine out of ten Christians martyrs worldwide are killed
- The tremendous sufferings of "white martyrs" and red martyrs
In these gripping pages, you will also see how even Christians who aren't martyrs by definition continue to be powerful witnesses amid the most dire circumstances, proclaiming the true Faith and radiating God's light in the face of the most diabolical cruelty.
This watershed work gives Tertullian's famous words "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church" an entirely new meaning.
Author Biography
Robert Royal is the founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing (www.thecatholicthing.org), an online publication that appears daily and is translated into five foreign languages. His most recent book is A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the 20th Century. Other books include Dante Alighieri, The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive Global History, The Pope's Army, and The God That Did Not Fail. Royal holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the Catholic University of America and has received fellowships to study in Italy from the Renaissance Society of America and as a Fulbright scholar.
