ANTI Ecumenism - SUPERB American Orthodox docum PART 7 of 15

The saints and holy fathers of the ages past died rather than surrender their faith. Countless martyrs chose death over renouncing Christ in even the smallest way. We hear of martyrs who were told to sacrifice to idols and had burning coals placed in their hands - yet they held these hot coals until their hands burned off rather than throw them before the idols, thus sacrificing to them.

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/against-ecumenism.html

Men, women, and even young children were tortured in diverse, cruel and unimaginable ways because they refused to renounce our Lord and Savior. Their stories fill us with awe for their supreme love and unwavering zeal for the faith. The holy fathers are shinning examples of how we ought to protect the faith. They fought and refuted the heresies of Arius, the Iconoclasts, Monophysites, and many others. At the First Council, St. Nicholas of Myra, filled with holy anger, struck the heretic Arius. St. John Chrysostom was exiled for teaching the truth. Many other saints and their heroic deeds for the sake of the church could be mntioned. How precious the faith was to these holy men and women! Let us imitate them as fully as we are able as we strive to hold fast to the Church, the same church for which they willingly gave their lives and sacrificed themselves, and not give way to the ecumenistic spirit that fills the world today.