Dear Everyone,
I will begin to post blog posts again. However, my focus will be different in that I plan to write on women who are known because of their function within the Church. The first woman we are going to look at is a woman named Blandina.
From 112 A.D. - 313 A.D., Christianity was outlawed by the Roman Empire. This reality led to the fairly common experience of local persecution and martyrdoms of Christians who refused to renounce their faith.
Blandina was a Christian slave girl, who lived in Lyons, France, and served as a minister or deacon in the church. In 177 A.D. she was part of a small group of Christians, who were accused and consequently martyred. Her public tortures included scourging, a roasting chair and being gored by a bull as ordered by the Roman governor Pliny the Younger, who mentioned her position in the church in his letter to the Emperor Trajan.
However, Blandina never gave up on her faith. Instead, her steadfast faith impressed the crowd who claimed never to have seen a woman bear such cruelties. Her boldness was for Christ and for the sake of others. She sought to encourage other believers, many of whom faced hideous torture and death. In her final words, she told her fellow prisoners: "Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, all of you, and be not offended by my sufferings."
Read Part Two HERE
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