Dear david f,

As I said, the terms involved in the definition of martyr are ambiguous. You are right to say that “some” might call martyrs those “suffering for their faith”: the Communist rule in East/Central Europe “produced” a number of them. However, technically the Church would not call them all martyrs or even saints, although some folk referred to many of them in those terms.

So I agree that beside the two technical definitions - one preferred by Christians one by Muslims - there is also a third, looser meaning of the word as “suffering for one’s faith (or convictions)”.

>>Taking an action that one believes would advance their cause or belief and results in their own suffering. That would include a suicide bomber or a crusader.<<
I think this is the difference between the Christian and Muslim understanding of the term martyr I referred to. The suicide bomber and crusader (or rather anti-crusader) are martyrs in the Muslim, not Christian, understanding of the word. Besides, the death in case of a suicide bomber is intentional, that of a crusader, as of any warrior, was not.

>>By that definition Bonhoeffer, Kolbe and King were not martyrs.<<
I agree, unless you use the term in that looser sense of “suffering for one’s faith”. Kolbe, the Catholic among them, is technically not even that. He was canonized and declared “martyr of charity”, apparently meaning not a martyr in the Catholic meaning of the word as quoted by Rhian from the RC Catechism.