Thursday, July 9, 1998 Published at 22:48 GMT 23:48 UK
Martyrs of the modern era
Niches have been empty since Middle Ages
The statues were unveiled before the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey.
The martyrs chosen by the Abbey represent religious persecution and oppression in each continents.
"There has never been a time in Christian history when someone, somewhere, has not died rather than compromise with the powers of oppression, tyranny and unbelief," the Rev Dr Anthony Harvey, sub-dean of Westminster, told the congregation.
The 10 statues were added to the Abbey as part of its restoration programme. The niches above the west gate had been empty since the Middle Ages.
The modern martyr
Among the martyrs represented in stone are: Saint Elizabeth of Russia, killed in Russia in 1918 by the Bolsheviks, Archbishop Oscar Romero, of El Salvador, and baptist preacher Martin Luther King, both of whom were assassinated.
The ideology of the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, centred around international peace and the coming together of countries through the church.
Bonhoeffer was eventually hanged in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 for his participation in a Protestant resistance movement, but it was his work as a spiritual writer, musician and author of fiction and poetry that had been his powerful weapon.
A pastor of the African-American Baptist church, he preached within a political context of creating equal voting and civil rights for the black community.
He believed fervently in passive resistance, and his assassination in 1968, made him a symbol of the struggle for social change.
Other figures represented are: Archbishop Oscar Romero, of El Salvador, Archbishop Janani Luwum, of Uganda, and Wang Zhiming, from China.
20th century martyrs
In 1918, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia was killed by the Bolsheviks.
Manche Masemola was a Anglican catechumen from South Africa who was killed in 1928 by her parents at the age of 16.
Maximilian Kolbe was canonised by the Roman Catholic Church after being killed by the Nazis in 1941.
In 1941, Lucian Tapiede, an Anglican from Papua New Guinea, was killed during the Japanese invasion.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian. killed by the Nazis in 1945.
Esther John, a Presbyterian evangelist from Pakistan, was allegedly killed by a Muslim fanatic in 1960.
One of the world's most famous civil rights activists, Martin Luther King, a baptist, was assassinated in 1969.
In 1972, Wang Zhiming was killed during the Chinese cultural revolution. He was a pastor and evangelist.
In 1977, Janani Luwum was assassinated during the rule of Idi Amin, in Uganda, for being an Anglican Archbishop.
Oscar Romero was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in El Salvado, assassinated in 1980.