Acta Martyrnm Acta Sanctorum, Martyrology. The ancient church gave the name Acta Martyrum, or "Acts of the Martyrs," to the records of the lives and sufferings of the martyrs which were kept for the edification of the faithful. The oldest acts extant are those referring to the death of St. Ignatius of Antioch (107). When to the lives of the martyrs those of other pious men were added, the collections received the name Acta Sanctorum, "Acts of the Saints." The deaths of pious men, and the circumstances attending their death, being communicated by the various Christian congregations to each other, an alphabetical list was occasionally hung up in the churches to keep their names fresh in the recollection of the brethren. These lists grew into brief biographies, and at length the institution of canonization and the dedication of particular days to the memory of the saints introduced their names and histories into the breviary and missal. The oldest collection of the acts of the martyrs was compiled by the church historian Eusebius in his two works De Martyribus Palestine and Synagoge Martyriorum. Collections of the most important lives were made in the 6th century by Gregory of Tours, and in the 10th by Simeon Metaphrastes. A more critical treatment is found in the Sanctuariun of Boninus Mombritius, and particularly in Ruinart's Acta Martyrnm Sincera (fol., Paris, 1689). By far the most celebrated collection of the lives of saints is that commenced by the Jesuit Bolland (died 1665), and still continued by a society of Jesuits, called Bollandists. In fact, this collection is so much more important than any other work of the kind, that in the history of literature it alone is understood by the name Acta Sanctorum. (See Bolland.)