The Forty Martyrs of Sebastia

In 320AD, forty soldiers of the Roman army of different backgrounds and races, were enrolled together into one troop and had great faith in Jesus Christ.

At the time of sacrifice to the pagan idols, the forty soldiers refused to do so. They were sentenced to be stripped of their clothing and exposed on a frozen lake at Sebastia, Pontus (Turkey) during the harsh winter season.

On hearing their sentence, the soldiers joyfully removed their clothes and willingly entered the lake, encouraging each other and praying to God:

"Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that we may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred number".

To tempt the soldiers to deny Christ, warm fires were lit near the lake. One soldier came out of the icy water but as he approached the fire he perished. In the night, a light from heaven heated the lake. The remaining soldiers sang hymns to God, and encouraged each other. One of the guards had a vision and saw the martyrs crowned. He declared himself a Christian and joined the thirty-nine martyrs in the lake, thus replacing the soldier who had forsaken his faith. The next day, the martyrs' shins were broken and they were cast back into the river to be drowned.

Three days after their death, the martyrs appeared to the local bishop, Peter of Sebastia, and told him to recover their relics. In the night, the bishop, along with his priests, went to the lake and found the relics glowing in the water, gathered them and gave them a just burial.

In a moving homily, St Ephraim the Syrian (who lived in their lifetime), offered up the following prayer:

"What shall we do in that terrible day [the Last Judgement] when the holy martyrs, placed near the throne of God, with great confidence shall display their glorious scars, the proofs of their fidelity? What shall we then show? … We beseech you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered torments and death for His love, and are now more familiarly united to Him, that you intercede with God for us slothful and wretched sinners, that He bestow on us the grace of Christ, by which we may be enlightened and enabled to love Him".

Amen.

The Forty Martyrs of Sebastia are commemorated on 9th March.

This article first appeared in Lychnos in March 2008