Martyr drama presents the passion of a martyr (Greek mártys, Late Latin martyr, “one who bears testimony”) in the form of a Trauerspiel or tragedy. A Christian martyr drama has at its center a person who bears testimony to the truth of faith through the blood witness of his or her violent death. This avowal is interpreted as an exemplum of virtue and the imitatio Christi (“imitation of Christ”), in order to show the world to be determined in accordance with the teleology of sa…