Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - March, 2005

The Forty Martys of Sebaste

from Syriac Orthodox Resources

In c. 320, forty Christian soldiers in the Roman 'Thundering legion' became martyrs at Sebastia on the banks of River Kizil in Lesser Armenia (today in Central Turkey). During the persecution unleashed by the Emperor Licinius on Christians, the Governor Agricolaus commanded soldiers to worship idols. Having disobeyed the command, the soldiers were tortured and imprisoned. Subsequently, they were martyred by being left naked on the ice of a frozen pond, with baths of hot water on the banks as a temptation to renounce their faith. One of them succumbed to the temptation and his place was taken by a heathen soldier of the guard, who confessed his faith. Their bodies were stacked together on a pyre and burnt to ashes. Their ashes were recovered by Empress Pulcheria (399-453). Their martyrdom is narrated by St. Basil of Caesaria, St. Gregory of Nyssa and in works attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian.

Hymns of the phanqitho of the Syriac Orthodox Church compares the Forty Martyrs to the forty palms in the vision of Prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40-41), stars that removed the darkness of idolatry, the lamps of Sebastia that shone through the night.

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