Martyr

(mar'tur.) [Gr. martüs, literally, a witne .] (Eccl. Hist.) Any innocent person who suffers death in defence of a cause rather than abandon it. In the Christian sense of the word, it is one who lays down his life for the Gospel, or suffers death for the sake of his religion. Those who boldly a erted their belief, but were not visited with the extreme punishment of death, were termed confe ors. [s. 581]