Missionary zeal in the thirteenth century was inseparable from the hope of martyrdom

Evidence

The apostles had been first and foremost missionaries, spreaders of the Word to infidels, and most of them had suffered martyrdom as a result of their mission. This was not lost on Francis and his followers. Francis’s disciple and biographer, Thomas of Celano, says that Francis “longed to attain the height of perfection,” in other words, that he was “burning intensely with the desire for holy martyrdom.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1099

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ — the apostolic missionary model made martyrdom the culminating act of devotion, a voluntary holy death.