In Hebrews 11:35–37 the author writes:
...Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
The narrative "sawn in two" sounds too cruel a punishment to be meted out to a human being. Does the Catholic tradition speak of any martyr who was given that punishment? Or, was St Paul using a figurative expression in order to suggest something else? What is the Catholic Church's view on the punishment of 'sawn in two' as used by the writer of Hebrews?