A protomartyr (

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

, ''prôtos'' 'first' + ''mártus'' '

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

') is the first

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

martyr in a country or among a particular group, such as a

religious order A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...

. Similarly, the phrase the Protomartyr (with no other qualification of country or region) can mean

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

, the first martyr of the Christian Church. Saint Thecla the Protomartyr, the first female martyr of the Christian Church, is known as "apostle and protomartyr among women".Michael F. Bird, Scott Harrower, ''The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers'', Cambridge University Press (2021), p. 183; see als
St. Thekla, Protomartyr and Equal to the Apostles (antiochian.org)

References

{{Expand list, date=August 2008 Protomartyrs