Only people who are insane would do that... or people burning with Faith

From Mike Aquilina:

"Yet the Fathers had enormous success in youth and young-adult ministry. Many of the early martyrs were teens, as were many of the Christians who took to the desert for the solitary life. There’s ample evidence that a disproportionate number of conversions, too, came from the young and youngish age groups.

How did the Fathers do it?

They made wild promises.

They promised young people great things, like persecution, lower social status, public ridicule, severely limited employment opportunities, frequent fasting, a high risk of jail and torture, and maybe, just maybe, an early, violent death at the hands of their pagan rulers."

When I was an altar server Saint Tarcisius was our patron. In fact we were called Tarcisians, besides the name of Knights of the Altar. As part of our formation we learned about his life. I especially liked his words as he was being stoned by his former friends: "Jesus, I will never leave You." Beautiful.

(from The Curt Jester)