St. Justin Martyr
A restless philosopher who tried every school of Greek thought hunting for God — until a stranger on the shore pointed him past reason to Christ, the 'true philosophy' he would defend before emperors and die for in Rome.
Timeline of St. Justin Martyr
- c. 100
Born in Flavia Neapolis
Born in Samaria, on the site of ancient Shechem, to pagan Greek parents who gave their clever son a fine education in poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy.
- c. 120s
The search through philosophy
Hunting for knowledge of God, he passed in turn through the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and at last the Platonists.
- c. 130
Conversion and baptism
After a stranger on the shore turned him toward the prophets, and the courage of the martyrs convinced him, he was baptized, most likely at Ephesus.
- c. 135
Dialogue with Trypho
At Ephesus he debated the Jewish scholar Trypho over two days, arguing from the Scriptures that Jesus was the promised Christ, and later wrote it all down.
- c. 150
Opens a school in Rome
He settled in Rome near the baths of Timothy and taught the 'true philosophy' in his rented rooms; Tatian was among his pupils.
- c. 155
The First Apology
He wrote openly to the emperor Antoninus Pius, defending Christians against the charges leveled at them and describing their baptism and Eucharist.
- c. 165
Martyrdom under Rusticus
Arrested in Rome with six companions, he refused to sacrifice to the gods and was scourged and beheaded under the prefect Junius Rusticus.
