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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Tourism & Travel
Spanish term or phrase:mártir protocristiano
I understand "proto-Christian" to mean something that came before or gave rise to Christianity, so what could it mean here?
La iglesia, de un particular estilo neoclásico exuberante, se comenzó a levantar en 1852, para honrar a un mártir protocristiano que debe su fama en Comitán al milagro que se le atribuyó de salvar de las epidemias de viruela y cólera morbus a la población del rancho donde se hallaba su estampa, a mediados del siglo pasado.
Pauline Christianity is largely the work of a single individual, Paul. It morphed into the proto-Christian movement and grew to be the present religion of Christianity - the faith of one out of every three persons worldwide. In the United States, at its peak, 7 out of 8 adults once identified themselves as Christians.
The Church you are referring to is presumably San Caralampio. St Charalampias was martyred in 203 in Asia Minor, which would make him an early Christian.
I'm a bit hazy on all this, and am not sure when the 1st christians were martyred - as you say, no doubt this was soon after Christ.
However, the way I see this is that it was the construction of the church that began in 1852. This could well have been many centuries after the martyrdom of the person who saved the people...
Do we know anything about this martyr (name, dates, etc)?
The term proto-Christian isn't in Merriam-Websters, but by extrapolation, it would mean early Christian, which would refer to someone living around the time of Christ.
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Answers
3 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
proto-Christian marty
Explanation: proto- means "quasi" in this case...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 mins (2009-10-26 18:27:45 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
MARTYR!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 mins (2009-10-26 18:28:44 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Or an "early Christian martyr"
proto(a): indicating the first or earliest or original;
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 mins (2009-10-26 18:29:31 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
So I'm changing my suggestion to "early Christian martyr"...
neilmac Spain Local time: 21:14 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 57
5 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +7
an early Christian martyr
Explanation: seems logical, though not absolutely sure, but see this thread (for what it's worth)
Any time, glad I could help, and I hope all's well with you!
Carol Gullidge United Kingdom Local time: 20:14 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 168
Grading comment
Thank you, Carol!!!
Notes to answerer
Asker: Hi, Carol! My problem is that the translation you've offered and the more literal proto-Christian martyr would mean someone from around the time of Christ. In the link you posted, someone said: No. Por lo que veo en Google, indica otra postura dentro del Cristianismo, no la tradicional. Hope all is going well with you!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
