There is not a single religion, gods, prophets or just followers of which would not perform great deeds aimed at the good of mankind. Well, in any case, this is how it is presented and covered in the “sacred” texts of these religions. These acts were very diverse, however, among them a very indicative phenomenon is the death of a follower for the sake of a great goal, to which he goes solely under the influence of his faith. This phenomenon is called martyrdom - despising pain and suffering to die for the sake of some idea.
However, depending on the religion, this death may be unrelated to it; it's just that her circumstances fit into one of the canons of this religion, for example, by accepting it from the hand of some negative person, or performing her duty, or something else.
Christian creeds are full of such companions and innocent victims. Moreover, there is a whole system of classification of the types of death and the corresponding "degrees" of proximity to God in paradise or somewhere else in the other world. In fact, the recognition of this or that person as a martyr is carried out according to approximately the same algorithm according to which meetings with elections or distributions of certain positions take place.
That is, a person's life is considered, the circumstances of his feat, important facts and actions, and a decision is made collectively - whether to write him down as a martyr or not. Despite all the illogicality of this procedure, there are about two hundred official martyrs in Orthodoxy alone. There are slightly fewer Catholic martyrs, about fifty of them.
There are whole cults of martyr worship. There are special prayers for them and for them. It is recommended to name children born on certain days by their names; temples are erected over the places of their death. And so on - the topic of martyrs is very fertile for various kinds of not only spiritual affairs, but also the mass of speculations around them.
However, the matter is not limited to just religion. Political movements have their own counterparts to martyrs. Especially where there were conflicts of ideas, resulting in wars and other types of bloodshed. After all, humanity does not invent anything new. Previously used proven ideas find their application in the most seemingly unexpected areas.
Since Soviet times, there have been "analogues" of martyrs. Do not these include events related to the commemoration of the death of people like Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya or Alexander Matrosov? And if we recall the events of August 1991 in Moscow? The three victims were not only buried with all the honors, but also for a whole year they were recalled in the media as martyrs who gave their lives for democracy. And let's look at Martin Luther King: they even erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey; about the day of his name, celebrated every third Monday in January, we will modestly keep silent. And so on and so forth.
Human death is a very unpleasant and terrible phenomenon. However, she, as it turns out in the case of the martyrs, can become a trend. And it can be used (even death for faith or idea) for the most base and mercantile purposes. For example, to popularize this or that phenomenon.
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But there is another interesting question. It consists in the fact that martyrdom is not always an act of voluntary sacrifice for the sake of some great goal. That is, the motivation for the actions of this or that martyr may not have high motives.
Many works of psychologists are devoted to these questions and the results of their research are very remarkable. For example, while examining the behavior of early adherents of Christianity, a very interesting phenomenon was noticed. When a Christian sentenced to death was offered to renounce his views, or he would be killed right there, in prison, the majority denied. But, if death was put on public display, and the Romans, in particular, were very fond of contemplating death in their amphitheatres, then the majority chose death in the arena, and not renunciation. This fact, which later gave rise to the legendary expression "in peace and death is red", runs as the main idea through the whole phenomenon of martyrdom.
There are a lot of things, phenomena and categories in the world, very strongly interconnected with each other, and without each other are useless. For example, you cannot imagine a text without a reader. Or a cartridge without a rifle. Each of these items, without their "second half", loses all their properties. No, you can, of course, use a rifle as a crutch, and a leaf with the text as kindling paper, but they were not created for this!
The situation is similar with the martyrs. If the act of sacrificing their lives does not have an audience, then perhaps there will be no act of martyrdom. But, this idea can be developed further: what prevents to create all the conditions for "heroic deeds", to prepare, so to speak, the ground and either just wait for someone who wants to put himself on the altar of some idea, or give someone the idea of doing all this and become a new martyr?
But nothing interferes! And for a long time already this has been happening in the most diverse forms and manifestations. From mass suicides of members of any totalitarian sects to the implementation of all kinds of terrorist acts by supporters of radical forms of religions. Moreover, for example, in some Islamic countries there are, for example, entire schools of martyrs. Why are they not modern martyrs? And one should not think that in Christianity everything is somehow different. Islam is simply a younger religion and what is now passing through Islam, Christianity took place 500-700 years ago. When in the same way there were mass suicides and terrorist attacks. Can't believe it, right? Nevertheless, this is so: to whom, no matter how terrorists, can Ravallac, who killed Henry IV, be attributed?
Saints and martyrs have always been made on a sinful earth, not in Heaven. Depending on the conjuncture of a particular time period, there was a fashion for one or another martyr. Sometimes they were fanatics, sometimes people who wanted fame. Among them were those who truly believed in the righteousness of their cause, and were ready to accept death for its sake. Be that as it may, they are still remembered.