In the Orthodox tradition, a hieromartyr is any person killed in the name of God who held the rank of bishop or above. They apparently exist at the same theological level as normal martyrs, but are simply also recognized as bishops in death by way of special lexical designation. In a religion with so many similarly named martyrs and saints, it may simply be an aid to identification that is expressed semantically as well as iconographically. However, it could just as likely be that the motivation provided by special after-death positioning helps to make people be good.