pro-martyr

English

Etymology

pro- +‎ martyr

Noun

pro-martyr (plural pro-martyrs)

1. The first martyr to die for a particular cause.
   • 1882, George Washington Williams, History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880:

     Such a man was John Brown. He was strong in his moral and mental nature, as well as in his physical nature. He was born to lead; and he led, and made himself the pro-martyr of a cause rapidly perfecting.

   • 1926, Relief Society Magazine:

     John was a son, probably the younger son, of Zebedee and Salome and a brother of the elder James who became the pro-martyr of the apostles.

   • 1952, John Arnold Fleming, The medieval Scots scholar in France, page 94:

     We have a tragic instance of baneful clericalism in the death of Patrick Hamilton, the pro-martyr of the Scottish Reformation

   • 1996, Thomas M. McCoog, The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits, →ISBN:

     Among the scholars at Douai, men were being prepared to serve as priests and some showed themselves eager to cross over to England immediately rather than wait upon events. Cuthbert Mayne was captured and executed in 1577 and is regarded as the pro-martyr of the seminary priests.

Adjective

pro-martyr (comparative more pro-martyr, superlative most pro-martyr)

1. In favor of or supporting martyrdom or a group of martyrs.
   • 2002, Antoinette Clark Wire, Holy Lives, Holy Deaths: A Close Hearing of Early Jewish Storytellers:

     Though not hearing the tellers' full stories in these passages, we are nonetheless reminded that neutrality was not a quality of storytelling. The pro-martyr stance of the statements above will only have been more dramatized in their story form.

   • 2004, Lucy Grig, Making martyrs in late antiquity, page 18:

     If we now turn to another lustily pro-martyr work we can open up some more key themes and problems.

   • 2008, M. A. Khan, The culture of martyrdom, page 4:

     Why should they cease suicide bombings if Israel withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza, when pro-martyr Hezbollah terrorists continue to attack Israel two years after it withdrew from Southern Lebanon?