4Real Forums: When do you start talking about martyrs?

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Topic: When do you start talking about martyrs?

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kristinannie
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Posted: May 14 2011 at 12:23pm \| IP Logged

I ordered some coloring books (with actual text) about saints from Seton Homeschool. My DS5 loves to color and I thought it would be nice for him to color the book and then read it with me. However, these are mostly martyrs and some of them are pretty gory. I was a little disturbed. My son is a sensitive kid. What do you do concerning the reality of martyrs, Jesus' passion, etc at this age? John Paul is aware of the passion, but not all the gory details!

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JodieLyn
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Posted: May 14 2011 at 12:31pm \| IP Logged

We usually talk about the fact that they died for the faith but not the details of the method. Probably just like you talk about Jesus died on the cross but not the details of what that entailed.

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kristinannie
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Posted: May 14 2011 at 12:53pm \| IP Logged

That is what I am thinking, but these books are pretty graphic. I wonder if I can return them. I don't know how much he will want to color by the time he is old enough to understand that stuff!

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JennGM
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Posted: May 14 2011 at 2:34pm \| IP Logged

Marytrs came up pretty early, just because when we talked about the liturgical colors and the children would see Father wearing red outside of "apostles, Pentecost, Good Friday, and Passion Sunday" they were wondering why.

So when they were mentioned I would talk in a general way, like Jodie mentioned -- giving up his life for the love of God but not going into detail of how.

To present visual details of martyrdom is harder to take than a discussion of the death. We started talking about martyrs sooner than I thought we were ready. My son was between five and six when he wanted to find out about different martyrs and the types of death. But he is not always eager to see the images of a depiction. He still doesn't want to see St. Sebastian with all the arrows.

I do have to mention that martyrs were being played in the basement with Daddy at a young age. It started with the Playmobil colliseum, and the Roman martyrs acted out. Then it turned into the child acting out being a martyr.

In all this, we followed our son's lead. He is very sensitive, but it comes out in different ways. The idea of martyrdom, not the bloody stuff, but having the courage and fortitude and strenght to be a soldier of Christ to the point of death is extremely appealing especially to a boy's nature. But on the other hand, he finished the Vision book on Mother Seton this winter and was just in tears each time St. Elizabeth lost a child or dear one and was narrating that part to me.

I know I'm rambling...but I'm just presenting how there are such different levels to all this!

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MaryM
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Posted: May 14 2011 at 2:38pm \| IP Logged

And this question reminded me a great conversation on the topic a few years ago - Learning about the saints...gently. There was a lot of good insight expressed there.

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Elena
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Posted: May 16 2011 at 8:05am \| IP Logged

My boys were more receptive to hearing about the gory details around All Saints Day. So one was St. Tarcisius which was a good excuse to use the fake blood to make him look pretty beat up. Another one was St. Sebastian and he had a great time with the arrows coming out of him! Father Damien was a great costume with white face paint and dark eyes. Saint Isaac Rouges (sp?) wsa a great costume too with his fingers all bandaged and bloody.

Interestingly, my sons picked Damien and Tarcisius later at confirmation time for patrons and I think it was because they portrayed them when they were younger for All Saints Day.

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