Catholic Heroes… St. Justin
By DEB PIROCH
A mere century after Christ and less after Paul wrote to the Ephesians, Justin was born in Samaria. His parents were Greek pagans, but he seems to have always sought God through philosophy. First a Stoic, he rejected this approach for not providing him with the answers he sought. (Stoics seek to do virtue through wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage. These resemble some aspects of Christianity, but there is no God.)
Next, he went to the Peripatetic, whose ideas derived from Aristotle. The teacher was only interested in collecting fees, so Justin dropped him. The Pythagorean he next visited would neither address his questions, unless he first studied music, astronomy, and geometry. Justin gravitated to the school of Plato which was much more pleasing. And yet…?
One day Justin was walking along the seashore where he met an elderly man. The man told him things he had never heard, opened his eyes to the prophets, who had made God known centuries before the appearance of what they foretold in the coming of Jesus Christ. The man suggested he should be studying Christianity instead.
He was baptized, either at Ephesus or Alexandria.
Justin was a voluminous writer, but sadly most of his work has been lost to time. The little that remains is impressive, part of the Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho. In the former he wrote: “When I was a disciple of Plato, hearing the accusations made against the Christians and seeing them intrepid in the face of death and of all that men fear, I said to myself that it was impossible that they should be living in evil and in the love of pleasure.”
St. Justin was only interested in Truth and he was convinced that Christianity was the only true religion that had it.
“Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this I came into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Pilate saith to him: What is truth?” (John 18-37:38).
During this early period of the Church, many teachings were not widely known. The Faith was young, and many were afraid to even explain its beliefs, in part because horrible mockeries were made of it and our Lord. But Justin dressed like a philosopher and spoke like an apologist; he said not speaking out could be an occasion of sin for those who simply did not know there was an alternative system. His writings that survived argued the case of Christianity as the superior choice and explained that is was no threat at all to the Empire.
His writing is impressive, and he defends Christianity from claims we would find ridiculous but which were nonetheless leveled at it, such as it was atheistic, explains that Christ’s coming was foretold in depth, quoting from the prophets at length, and that there is only one, true God and Christians worship only Him. And he goes on even to explain even the sacraments, including a beautiful description of what occurs during Mass:
“The food we call the Eucharist, of which none are allowed to be partakers, but such only as are true believers, and have been baptized in the waters of regeneration for the remission of sins, and live according to Christ’s precepts; for we do not take this as common bread and wine; but as Jesus Christ was made flesh by the Logos of God, and had the real blood and flesh of our salvation, so we are taught that this food, which the very same Logos blessed by prayer and thanksgiving, is turned into nourishment and substance of our body and blood, and is in some sense the Body and Blood of the incarnate Jesus” (Apologies).
Justin’s first Apology, addressed to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate, did succeed in a reprieve for the Christians from persecution. However, with the ascent of Emperor Marcus Aurelius to power, persecution renewed. He was quite probably denounced by a cynic by the name of Crescens, whom he publicly debated, and determined was guilty both of ignorance and purposeful misrepresentation.
During these times it was terribly difficult to exist at all as a Christian: In the military or as a tradesman of any kind, one was surrounded by images of the emperor in power that one had to honor, all of them impossible if one were a Christian. And while some regimes may have been more tolerant, others were not. As a philosopher Justin spoke about thought and felt in a just society obviously these should be open to debate.
The soon-to-be martyr was brought before the Roman prefect, Rusticus. Justin was likely a deacon, unmarried, and tried and eventually executed along with six others, one of them a female martyr. Butler’s Lives presents us with part of his trial, which remains to us despite 1900 years:
“Rusticus: What branch of learning do you study?
“Justin: I have studied all in turn. But I finished by deciding on the Christian teaching, however disagreeable it may be to those who are deceived by error.
“Rusticus: And that is the learning that you love, you foolish man?
“Justin: Yes. I follow the Christians because they have the truth.
“Rusticus: What is this teaching?
[Justin then explained belief in one God, redemption through Jesus Christ, foretold by the prophets and our eventual judgment. Rusticus wants to know where Christians meet.]
“Justin: Wherever they can. Do you suppose we all meet in the same place? Not a bit of it. The God of the Christians is not found in any particular place. He is invisible. He is everywhere in Heaven and Earth, and His faithful ones praise and worship Him everywhere and anywhere.
“Rusticus: All right then: Tell me where you foregather with your followers.
“Justin: I have always stayed at the house of a man called Martin. . . .
“Rusticus: You, then, are a Christian:
“Justin: Yes, I am a Christian.
[Rusticus inquires of the other prisoners whether they are Christians.]
“Rusticus: Listen, you said you who are said to be eloquent and who believes that he has the truth — if I have you beaten and beheaded, do you believe that you will then go up to Heaven?
“Justin: If I suffer as you say, I hope to receive the reward of those who keep Christ’s Commandments. I know that all who do that will remain in God’s grace even to the consummation of all things.
“Rusticus: So you think you will go up to Heaven, there to receive a reward?
“Justin: I don’t think it. I know it. I have no doubt about it whatever.
“Rusticus: Very well. Come here and sacrifice to the gods.
“Justin: Nobody in his senses gives up truth for falsehood.
“Rusticus: If you don’t do as I tell you, you will be tortured without mercy.
“Justin: We ask nothing better than to suffer for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and so to be saved. If we do this we can stand confidently and quietly before the fearful judgment seat of that same God and Savior, when in accordance with the divine ordering all this world will pass away.”
[All the martyrs agreed, were scourged and beheaded. Christian took the bodies in secret to bury them.]
Justin’s relics still remain in some places, including Malta. The names of the other martyrs are known only to God. All of his writings are said to show the faith unchanged from his date to ours, which is remarkable and awe-inspiring. His feast is April 14.
