This is a book about some of the colourful personalities who emerged from the ranks of the early Christian faithful to seize the imagination and hold the attention of their communities. This they achieved either by their readiness in times of persecution to die for their faith as martyrs or by their sometimes extravagant efforts to subsume their physical desires and needs to spiritual ends as ascetics. Intriguing in themselves because of their often extreme behaviour, they have remained venerated figures in the Christian tradition to this day. Aideen Hartney provides a short introduction to these remarkable figures and the thinking behind their actions. She places them in historical and cultural context, making them accessible to all readers, whether their approach to the subject is from a sociological, historical or theological standpoint. The book also provides a rounded picture of Christianity under the Roman emperors and into late antiquity, and of its impact on subsequent Roman society and the way in which the Church developed and has continued to develop to this day.