At once brave and athletic, virtuous and modest, female martyrs in the second and third centuries were depicted as self-possessed gladiators who at the same time exhibited the quintessentially "womanly" qualities of modesty, fertility, and beauty. L. Stephanie Cobb explores the double embodiment of "male" and "female" gender ideals in these figures, connecting them to Greco-Roman virtues and the construction of Christian group identities.

Both male and female martyrs conducted their battles in the amphitheater, a masculine environment that enabled the divine combatants to showcase their...

Does martyrdom hurt? The obvious answer to this question is "yes." L. Stephanie Cobb, asserts, however, that early Christian martyr texts respond to this question with an emphatic "no " Divine Deliverance examines the original martyr texts of the second through fifth centuries, concluding that these narratives in fact seek to demonstrate the Christian martyrs' imperviousness to pain. For these martyrs, God was present with, and within, the martyrs, delivering them from pain. These martyrs' claims not to feel pain define and redefine Christianity in the ancient world: whereas Christians...