Faith at the very end
The Last Words of the Faithful
A person's last sentence, spoken with nothing left to gain and everything to lose, is a kind of confession. For twenty centuries Christians have died with a strange composure, forgiving their killers, comforting their friends, calling death a beginning. Here are their documented final words, and the faith that could produce them.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Revelation 12:11
- Stephen, the First Martyr · Died about AD 34
- Polycarp of Smyrna · Died about AD 155
- Perpetua of Carthage · Died AD 203
- William Tyndale · Died 1536
- Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley · Died 1555
- Thomas Cranmer · Died 1556
- John Wesley · Died 1791
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Died 1945
- Martin Luther · Died 18 February 1546
- John Hus · Died 6 July 1415
- Nicholas Ridley · Died 16 October 1555
- John Newton · Died 21 December 1807
- D. L. Moody · Died 22 December 1899
- Ignatius of Antioch · Died about AD 108
- Blandina of Lyons · Died AD 177
- John Chrysostom · Died 14 September 407
- John Knox · Died 24 November 1572
- Susanna Wesley · Died 23 July 1742
- Charles Wesley · Died 29 March 1788
- Jonathan Edwards · Died 22 March 1758
- Bede · Died 26 May 735
- Augustine of Hippo · Died 28 August 430
- Justin Martyr · Died about AD 165
- Lady Jane Grey · Died 12 February 1554
- Anne Askew · Died 16 July 1546
- John Bunyan · Died 31 August 1688
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What they died for, you can meet
None of these people died for an idea. They died holding onto a Person, convinced that death was not the end because he had already walked out of a tomb. The Living Bread is a quiet place to meet that same Jesus, read the Gospels for yourself, and ask your honest questions.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- What did the Christian martyrs say before they died?
- Their documented last words are remarkably consistent across centuries: Stephen forgave his killers (Acts 7), Polycarp refused to deny the King who never wronged him, Tyndale prayed for the king who killed him, Latimer promised a candle that would never go out, and Bonhoeffer called his execution the beginning of life.
- Are these last words historically reliable?
- Each quotation here is drawn from a named primary source: Scripture, the eyewitness Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Passion of Perpetua, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or a named eyewitness memoir. Where an account is traditional rather than certain, it is said so on the page.
