As Christians, we have a responsibility to build a distinct, living culture in the twenty-first century

Christian Valor Amidst Pagan Persecution

John P. Bequette

Much like our own woeful Republic, the Roman Empire in late antiquity suffered from moral exhaustion and was beginning to show signs of its eventual collapse.  Amidst that decay, St. Martin of Tours (c.336-397) embodied the Christian valor necessary to sustain and rebuild authentic Christian culture.

For centuries, the most important Roman moral quality was virtus. While the word is most readily translated as “virtue,” for the Romans virtus connoted fortitude, or better, valor. The word also shares a common root with the Latin word for man (vir).  Thus, to act with virtue or valor was, for the Romans, to act in a “manly” way.  This manliness or valor had provided the sturdy, rugged ethosof the Republic and, when inculcated in her soldiers, enabled Rome to rise to the status of an empire.Yet this same characteristically Roman trait had degenerated by the mid-fourth century.  

The Roman populace had lost its traditional civic devotion.  Their readiness to endure hardship and sacrifice for the res publica had evaporated, now replaced by an impoverished attitude of hedonism and self-promotion. This same loss of valor was felt in the Roman legions, which had become undisciplined, effete, and now began to cower in face of the hardier barbarian peoples who were crossing the frontier in increasing numbers. 

The cultural foundation of Rome was disintegrating, and since political life follows culture, Roman civic life was collapsing.

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