The article deals with the portrayal of saints as heroes in medieval plays by focusing on their attitude towards fear, terror, and martyrdom. The Passion plays and planctus are the dramatic forms that are most concerned with suffering and death. For further analysis, several Polish, German, and Croatian texts are also studied. In the Lament świętokrzyski (fifteenth century), for instance, the protagonist is God’s Mother and Her pain. The paper contrasts this Polish Marienklage with some German examples. Another question relates to human behaviour before his or her own death. Two principle models are evident: firm trust in God (mainly through Saints), or the total despair of condemned persons.
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