in the church of Rome, is a catalogue or list of martyrs, including the history of their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The term comes from μάρτυς, "witness," and λέγω, "dico," or λέγω, "colligo."

The martyrologies draw their materials from the calendars of particular churches, in which the several festivals dedicated to them are marked; and which seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great men in their fasti, or public registers.

The martyrologies are very numerous, and contain many ridiculous and even contradictory narratives; which is easily accounted for, if we consider how many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of saints and martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which the legendary writers afterwards adopted without examining into the truth of them. However, some good critics, of late years, have gone a great way towards clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from the monstrous heap of fiction they laboured under. See the article LEGEND.