Saint Justin Martyr

Saint Justin was a philosopher who, after years of searching, found the truth in Christ, defended the faith in his writings, and gave his life for it in Rome. Benedict XVI called him the most important of the second-century apologists, the writers who defended Christianity against accusations and explained the faith in language the people of their time could understand. The Church commemorates him on June 1.

He was born around the year 100 in Flavia Neapolis, today’s Nablus in Samaria, near ancient Shechem. For a long time he sought the truth about God in the schools of Greek philosophy. In the Dialogue with Trypho he recounts that he went in turn to a Stoic, a Peripatetic, and a Pythagorean, until at last the teaching of Plato captivated him. The turning point was a meeting with a mysterious old man on the seashore. The old man showed him that a human being cannot satisfy the longing for God by his own powers, and directed him to the prophets. On parting, he urged him to pray that the gates of light might be opened to him.

In the Second Apology Justin also recalls that he was moved by the courage of Christians who did not fear death. He embraced the faith and later wrote that he had found this philosophy alone to be sure and profitable. He settled in Rome and founded a school there, where he introduced students to Christianity free of charge as the true philosophy. He taught that Christ is the eternal Word, the Logos, and that every human being bears within a seed of the Word, through which he can come to know the truth. The Word spoke to the Hebrews through the prophets and in part, as seeds of truth, also in Greek philosophy.

Three of his works have survived: two Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho, an account of a conversation with a Jew of that name. He addressed the First Apology around the year 155 to the emperor Antoninus Pius. In it he described baptism and the Sunday assembly of Christians. This is the oldest description of the Eucharist in its essential form: on the day called the day of the sun, the faithful from the cities and the countryside gather together, the writings of the apostles and the prophets are read, the one presiding instructs them, and after the prayers he gives thanks over the bread and wine. Justin stressed that this is not common bread or common drink, but the Body and Blood of Jesus.

He stayed in Rome twice. During his second stay he was denounced and brought before the prefect Rusticus. According to the acts of his martyrdom, which are regarded as reliable, he declared that he had come to know many doctrines but had accepted the true teaching of the Christians. Because he refused to offer sacrifice to the gods, he was condemned to be scourged and beheaded. He died around the year 165, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, together with six of his disciples, whom the Roman Martyrology commemorates on the same day.

Like other martyrs of the first centuries, he has been venerated since antiquity, without a formal canonization. In the collect of his memorial the Church confesses that through the folly of the Cross God gave him the sublime knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox also commemorate him on June 1.