formed its cultural identity and was "indelibly marked by the collective memory of the religious suffering of others." She says: "The category of collective memory helps to illuminate why martyrdom was —and continues to be— such a critical building block of Christian culture." G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, Marxist historian, says, "By around the late first century, the Romans had a clear conception of what Christians were which encompassed most, (although by no means all), of the myriad of groups who considered themselves Christian. This understanding focused on what Christians were not, namely people who would not participate in traditional sacrifices." Much recent work has focused on the fashioning of the identities of Christians and Jews through mutual interaction which was often hostile. Priest and theologian Mauricio Saavedra Monroy says "the Martyrdom of Pionius records the "progressive disencounter [the ongoing process of separation] between the Jews of the day and the Christian minority." Monroy notes "the development on the Christian side of a literary genre and a theology of accusation and defense in the face of Jewish proselytism exercised in the midst of the persecutions of the Christians who, at this point in history are already clearly differentiated from the former by the authorities of the Empire and the mass of the people." Both the Martyrdom of Polycarp and that of Pionius convey that the social ascendancy of Judaism in Smyrna was exploited to take advantage of the weakness of the Christians during the time of persecution. Even if they were elaborated, "it is clear that the perception the editors of these sources had of the Jewish community present in Smyrna clearly conveys a real conflict between Christians and Jews." References Texts in Syriac 3rd-century Christian martyrs 3rd-century Christian saints 3rd-century Christian texts