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The Church Fathers · c. 160–170
The Acts of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice
Anonymous
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What it is
Two men are tried and burned at Pergamum. A woman in the crowd named Agathonice sees a vision of glory, throws off her cloak, and lays herself on the stake unasked, while the crowd shouts at her to think of her son.
Why it lasted
The sharpest surviving instance of voluntary martyrdom, the practice bishops spent the next century trying to discourage — preserved here with open admiration.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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