Why did pagans desecrate the bodies of the martyrs?

Pagan persecutors of the Christians became aware of the Christian belief in the resurrection from the dead, and that the Christians drew a strength and hope from this belief that enabled them to joyfully withstand tortures. Therefore, they expended much effort in

1164 Minucius Felix, The Octavius 34 (ANF 4:194).

destroying the remains of the martyrs, thinking that in so doing, they would dash the Christians’ hopes for a bodily resurrection.¹¹⁶⁵ And yet, this did nothing to shake the Christian hope in the resurrection of the body, as is evident from the words of Tatian the Syrian : “Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the world receives the vaporized matter; and though dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. And, although the poor and the godless know not what is stored up, yet God the Sovereign, when He pleases, will restore the substance that is visible to Him alone to its pristine condition.”¹¹⁶⁶