Defenders of the faith in word and deed

Defenders of the faith have been raised up in every era of the Church to proclaim fidelity to the truth by their words and deeds. Some have fought heresy and overcome confusion: Athanasius against the Arians and Ignatius Loyola in response to the Protestant reformers. Others have shed their blood for the faith: the early Christian martyrs of Rome, or Thomas More, John Fisher and Edmund Campion in Reformation England. Still others have endured a "dry" martyrdom: St. Philip Howard, Josef Cardinal Mindszenty and Jesuit Walter Ciszek. Intellectuals have been no less conspicuous in their zealous defense of the faith: Bonaventure, Albert, Thomas Aquinas, or Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.