day no. 15,693: if they killed her quick

"She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.” - Flannery O'Connor, A Temple of the Holy Ghost

The prerequisite of a saint is right living, whereas that of the martyr is right dying. That is to say, a saint must die daily, but a martyr just the once. A saint must live rightly by dying daily; a martyr may die rightly by doing it just the once.

There is the kind of faith required to be a martyr and there is that kind that leads to one being martyred. It takes real faith to die for Christ if that situation in general should come upon you, but it takes another type of faith to live in such a way that it comes looking for you in particular. To live as a saint is to draw fire from the world. To be a martyr is to align yourself with God and His saints at the critical point, a difficult thing to do, especially if it has not been your habit to do so up until then. But many do not exercise the daily faith of a saint in dying to oneself and would disassociate from those that do if given too much time in the face of too much conflict. To be a saint is to be faithful. To be a martyr is to have faith. But some types of martyrdom would prove too much for many people’s faith.

Hebrews 11:37
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated

Those who were stoned to death or sawn in two had to have the kind of faith that endured death in repetition. To be stoned to death is to endure the blow of many stones. To be sawn in two is to endure the many backs and forths of the saw. To have faith enough to endure only half the strokes, would be futile. It may stop the sawing, but not the dying. To be sawn halfway in half is to be completely beyond repair. Such is the faith of some- enough to do something, but not enough to finish doing it. Enough perhaps to engage, but not enough to endure.

To live as a saint requires faith that fills the day. Some people don't want to live in such a way, but would be willing to die for such a way, if it came to that. Such a person doesn’t want to have to live for Jesus now, but hopes that they'd be willing to die for Him if it came to that; but even then, only if it were done quickly enough without an opportunity or time enough to back out or turn back.