Martyrs In Life

Sufficere nobis deberent ad profectum salutis nostrae martyrum exempla sanctorum, qui propter adipiscendam coelestem coronam omnibus se mandatis dominicis subdiderunt; et ita cunctis devinxerunt se legibus Salvatoris, ut propter anteactam vitam mererentur ad hanc martyrii gloriam pervenire. Non enim illo in tempore tantum perfecerunt praeceptum Domini, quo confessionis supplicum pertulerunt; sed necesse est illos prius secundum Evangelium vixisse Christi, ut Christi passionibus potirentur. Necesse est enim, ut initia bona fuerint, quorum finis est optimus subsecutus; et martyres eos non solum fuisse cum passi sunt, sed etiam martyres Christi fuisse cum viverent. Martyr enim Latine testis dicitur; ac quotiescunque bonis actibus mandatum Christi facimus, toties Christo testimonium perhibemus. Unde et crux Domini non illa tantum dicitur quae passionis tempore ligni affixione construitur, sed et illa quae totius vitae curriculo cunctarum disciplinarum virtutibus cooptatur; de quae mihi videtur Salvator dicere: Qui vult venire post me, tollat crucem suam et sequatur me?  Nunquid omnes virgines, qui juxta Apocalypsim sequuntur Agnum Dei, crucifixi sunt, ut sequantur? Nunquid Paulus apostolus crucifixus fuerat, cum dicit: 'Mihi autem absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus, et ego mundo'? Hoc autem dicit, ut intelligas crucem non ligni esse patibulum, sed vitae virtutisque propositum. Tota igitur vita Christiani hominis, si secundum Evangelium vivat, crux est atque martyrium. Sanctus Maximus Taurinensis, Homilia  LXXXII, De Sanctis Martyribus Migne PL 57.429-430

Sufficient should the examples of the saints be to us to profit for our salvation, those who on account on obtaining the celestial crown subdued themselves to all the teachings of the Lord, and served all the precepts of the Savior, that by the life lived they might merit to come to the glory of the martyrs. For it is not to him alone in that time when he undergoes the sufferings of confession that the precepts of the Lord are perfected, but it is necessary that those who have lived according to the Gospel of Christ are like those who undergo the sufferings of Christ. For necessary it is that there were goods before, of which the subsequent end is the best; the martyrs were not only those who suffered, but even they were martyrs who lived for Christ. Martyr means witness, and as many times as we adhere to the teaching of Christ by good deeds, so often do we give witness to Christ. Whence even the cross of Christ is said to be not only in that time of suffering when there is the fixing to the wood, but even of that whole life taken up as a training in every discipline of the virtues, about which it seems to me the Saviour spoke when he said, 'He who would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.' 1 Was it that all the virgins who followed the Lamb of God in the Apocalypse, were crucified, that they might follow? 2 Was it that Paul was crucified when he said, 'May it not be for me to glory unless in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me and I to the world' ? 3 This indeed he says that you understand that the cross is not the wooden gibbet, but the pursuit of the virtuous life. Thus the life of the Christian man, that he lives according to the Gospel, is the cross and martyrdom. Saint Maximus of Turin, from Homily 82, On The Holy Martyrs 1. Lk 9.23 2 Apoc 14.4 3 Gal 6.14