Raise Three Fingers for Your Faith!

Jensine Oerts Peters was a Danish missionary who spent her life serving the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Below is her account of the martyrdom of the men from Malatya, during the Hamidian Massacres in 1896.

"Forty-six men were lined up against the wall, their tormentors, armed to the teeth, facing them. They were given the alternative of raising one finger, signifying one God and Mohammed, His one prophet, to save their lives. Not a hand stirred as they stood facing death. Then they were asked to raise three fingers for their faith in the triune God, which would mean death. This time the hands came up with the three fingers. This done, they were led to the waiting block, and in less than thirty minutes all were decapitated, their bodies heaped up in a corner of the courtyard, and their spirits were in the presence of the Lord forever safe from their enemies."

Jensine's memoir about her work with the Armenians can be found online right here: Tests and Triumphs of Armenians in Turkey and Macedonia.