Last words of the faithful
Blandina of Lyons
Died AD 177 · killed in the amphitheatre at Lyons
Blandina was a slave in Lyons in Gaul, tortured over several days in the persecution of AD 177. The letter written by the surviving churches of Lyons and Vienne, preserved by Eusebius, records that she answered every torture with the same words: that she was a Christian and that nothing wicked was done among them.
The last words
The story behind them
The letter is blunt about what everyone assumed. Blandina was a slave, and her own mistress, who was also arrested, was afraid the girl would not have the strength to confess. Everyone expected her to be the first to break.
What the letter records instead is that the men torturing her worked in shifts from morning until evening, gave up, and admitted they were beaten, saying they did not know what more could be done to her. Through all of it she said one thing, and the letter preserves it: 'I am a Christian, and nothing wicked is done among us.' The second half matters. They were accused of cannibalism and incest, the standard slanders, and her answer defended her brothers and sisters as much as herself.
The one they were sure would break first was the one nobody could break.
She was hung on a post for the beasts, who would not touch her. The letter says that the others, watching her, saw in her the form of the one who was crucified for them. She was brought out day after day to watch the others die, and on the last day she was put in a net and thrown to a bull. The writers of the letter were her own church, writing to other churches while it was still fresh, and they had no reason to invent a slave as their hero. That is why she is here.
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
- Who was Blandina?
- Blandina was a young slave woman in Lyons in Gaul, martyred in the persecution of AD 177. Her endurance under torture is described at length in an eyewitness letter from the churches of Lyons and Vienne.
- What did Blandina say?
- The letter records that she answered repeatedly, 'I am a Christian, and nothing wicked is done among us,' defending both her faith and her fellow Christians against the slanders made against them.
- How do we know about Blandina?
- From a letter written by the surviving Christians of Lyons and Vienne to the churches of Asia and Phrygia shortly after the events, preserved in full by the historian Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, Book 5.
