Does anyone know what a martyr is?

Question

When I was 16. I tried to kill myself. Thinking my mother and my sister would get along if I wasn't there. ( I know this may not have been true, now) My counselor said, At that young of an age I was willing to become a martyr. I really don't understand. Please explain. Thankyou.

Just so you know. I was not trying to get sympathy. At least not for me. For my sister, maybe. Anyway, thank you all for some very good answers. I really like the one about the virgin. I think maybe she meant something else. I'll ask her. So you know. I shouldn't be alive. I took a full bottle of an anti siezure med. and 2 full bottles of advil. I'm doing much better now. I don't want or need sympathy or pity.

Ya Ya, I don't agree with your anaylisis of me. However, you gave the most descriptive definition.

Answer 1

1. a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion.
2. a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice.
3. a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering: a martyr to severe headaches.
4. a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.
–verb (used with object)
5. to make a martyr of, esp. by putting to death.
6. to torment or torture.

I'd put you in category 4

Answer 2

I'm not going to interfere with your councilors plan and tell you my opinion of the significance of saying that.. suffice it to say under what little I know of the situation I would have chosen different words... or maybe I misread what you have written and she asked you this in a questioning way instead of labeling...

anyway.. a martyr is someone who dies, whether by their own hand or by someone else's, for a cause, which then gives that cause a life of it's own if you will.. making the cause become an ideal of many people and inspiring them to follow, for better or worse.

Martin Luther King Jr, Joan of 'Arc, Ghandi.. these people were all martyrs... many would place JFK and Lincoln in this category as well.. some would even say that Saddam Hussein was a martyr to those who followed him.. and if found and killed Osama Bin Laden would deffinately be a martyr.

Answer 3

A martyr is a person who is put to death or endures suffering because of a belief, principle or cause. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.

In different belief systems, the criteria for being considered a martyr is different. In the Christian context, a martyr is an innocent person who, without seeking death, IS murdered or put to death for his or her religious faith or convictions. An example is the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. Christian martyrs sometimes decline to defend themselves at all, in what they see as an imitation of Jesus' willing sacrifice.

Your counselor probably said that as a figure of speech. I wouldn't take it literally if I were you, unless you were jumping in front of a bullet to prevent your mother from getting shot.

Hope this answers your question.
Wish you the best.

Answer 4

A martyr is usually in the forefront of some 'cause' or another, political in nature, who shoots his mouth off and gets himself killed. Then his cohorts insist that 'he yet lives!' This tends to create a mass-hysteria and gets attention, like never before, if properly publicized.

There's a sucker born every minute.

Answer 5

Someone who wants to be in heaven with a 72 year old virgin.

Answer 6

Martyr is the one that sacrifices himself or herself for an idea that he or she considers worthy to die for.

Answer 7

In laymen's terms: it's someone that always wants you to feel sorry for them.

Answer 8

someone who willingly dies for a cause. simple and sweet.