Here's an alternate story for this wonderful martyrdom:
Karen
Once I knew a librarian named Karen. She had a sweet, pretty face, a brilliant I.Q., and a delightful sense of humor. She actually could make funny jokes, and we liked many of the same things, so I just had to date her. I learned she lived with her widowed mother in very clean but poor circumstances. She always wore a prim navy blue jacket and skirt with a ruffled white blouse. Old-lady-librarian-style although she was just 36. Her chestnut hair was pulled back into a bun, and she always wore the same earrings. She had an endearing "tee-hee" laugh, and of course I was falling for her. But after a dinner date, she sat with me in my car and explained that soon she was going away. Her library had honored her request to operate a bookmobile in a troubled land overseas, and with some misgivings, they found one such opportunity open. I protested how dangerous it might be, but she insisted, "It will be worth it to bring some joy to those ssuffering people."
Once arrived overseas, she took instructions in how to drive the bookmobile, service the villages, and navigate the route. The simple villagers all loved this pretty and kind American lady who also also read aloud to the blind and illiterate. Everything was going wonderfully for Karen. But came the awful day when she was stopped by a roadblock. Illiterate rebels got her out of the van, while others went into the bookmobile and started throwing all the books and computers to the ground. Karen protested, only to be told she was under arrest. The rebels took her and some books before a judge who also was illiterate. After listening to them and glancing at the books, the old fool passed his sentence on Karen: to be taken to the village square, stripped naked, caned, and crucified until she was dead. Through her tears, Karen asked that she not be raped, because she was still a virgin. The judge then instructed that all jailors and executioners respect her wish.
As the villagers later related the events, the rebels made all the adults turn out for the execution. Karen was marched to the ancient square, where her hands were tied and arms hoisted up to an arch. The crowd protested and begged for mercy. But strong men in dirty clothes savagely ripped off Karen's prim jacket, skirt, and blouse with loud tearing sounds, and threw them into the dust. She stood arms raised in her bra and panties, revealing a stunningly wonderful body that had always been so disguised by shapeless clothes. Karen remained stoic as the crazed throwbacks to apes ripped off her fresh underwear, hose, and shoes, and they leered at her magnificent breasts and nakedness. The whipping man stepped up to cane her lovely back, which he did without mercy for thirty lashes, and she bore it bravely as the people in the crowd wept openly. Then the crew brought the big wooden cross, which they put down, and Karen's hands were cut loose. The illiterates set her body down on it and got to work nailing her dainty hands and feet to the wood. The brave librarian just bit her lower lip before crying out, "Forgive them, they don't know what they do!"
Finally as the sun was setting, the bad-smelling crew sunk the cross base into its hole and raised Karen and her cross up high. As debased as her abuse had been, she never looked more beautiful and dignified, even saintly. She scanned the crowd with her wet blue eyes and managed a little smile, then said in a weakened but warm voice, "It has been my pleasure to serve as your librarian. I'm sorry but after tonight I won't be able to any more. I LOVE YOU ALL!" Karen closed her eyes and her kind, delicate face dropped down towards her gorgeous, sweating, voluptuous body, which filled the village people with sadness but such admiration. She took a last breath, and died like the brave martyr she was. How I cried when, years later, I learned these sad facts, and why Karen had volunteered for this dangerous mission. Because before our last date, doctors had discovered she had an inoperable brain tumor. If there's a heaven, I know she is there, smiling, joking, laughing, still delighting everyone as their beautiful, kindhearted, funny, favorite librarian.