The emerging genre of Christian martyrologies owed part of its existence to the Jewish martyrologies in 2 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees, where the death of the faithful is portrayed in Greek philosophical terms (such as non-suffering and immovability), which serve to heroise the deaths of the martyrs. The Christian martyr narratives interpret the deaths of the believers as rooted in the death of Christ which they exemplify. Those martyr narratives that embellish the accounts of the deaths with legend and fantasy move in the direction of laying a foundation for the development of a cult of the saints.

Justin Martyr's Second Apology, to the prefect Urbicus of ± 150 CE, contains the Martyrdom of Ptolemaeus, an account of the death of a Christian wife of a pagan husband and Lucius. The Martyrdom of Justin, from 165 CE, recounts the execution by decapitation of Justin and six co-believers. The Martyrdom of Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice, from ± 165 CE, is a narrative about the three being sentenced to death for refusing to sacrifice to the emperor. Eusebius cites the narrative of the martyrs of Lyon in his Church History telling of the persecution of churches in the Rhone Valley in Gaul in 177 CE where Christians had been decapitated or thrown to wild beasts. Eusebius's Church History also contains the narrative of the martyrdom of Apollonius during the reign of Commodus (180 to 192 CE). In the account of the martyrs of Scilli in North Africa (180 CE), we have the oldest report of the details of an interrogation in Latin. The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas dating from the end of the second century or the beginning of the third century, from Carthage in North Africa, commends the steadfastness of the women who had been comforted by visions.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

The Martyrdom of Polycarp is the first martyr narrative in early Christianity. It was composed at around 155 CE by the church of Smyrna and addressed to the church of Philomelium. Although placed within the framework of a letter, it is essentially a narrative.