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SEBASTE, LESSER ARMENIA - C. 320 AD
THE FORTY
Forty soldiers were ordered onto a frozen lake and told they could walk off it the moment they renounced Christ. A warm bath waited on the shore, in plain sight, all night.
READ THEIR STORY
THE ACCOUNT
HISTORY
They died near Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia, under the persecution Licinius carried out against the Christians of the East after 316. The earliest account we have was preached by St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in a homily for their feast — a feast already being kept before he became bishop.
His eulogy was delivered only fifty or sixty years after the martyrdom, to people whose parents could remember it. That closeness is why the event is regarded as historic beyond a doubt.
316
Licinius turns on the Christians of the East
c.320
The night on the lake at Sebaste
370
St. Basil preaches their feast at Caesarea
ONE NIGHT
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAKE
01
THE CONFESSION
Forty soldiers openly confess themselves Christians and refuse to sacrifice to the gods.
02
THE SENTENSE
The prefect condemns them to be exposed naked on a frozen pond on a bitterly cold night, to freeze to death.
03
ONE YIELDS
One leaves his companions for the warm baths prepared beside the lake for any who might prove inconstant.
04
AGLAIUS
A guard sees a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them, proclaims himself a Christian, throws off his garments, and stands with the thirty-nine. Forty again.
05
DAYBREAK
Their stiffened bodies, still showing signs of life, are burned and the ashes cast into a river. Christians gather what remains.
NAMED IN THE MENAION
THE FORTY MARTYRS
ELIAS
CANDIDUS
THEOPHILUS
DOMETIAN
GAIUS
GORGONIUS
EUTYCHES
ATHANASIUS
HESYCHIUS
MELITON
HERACLIUS
SMARAGDUS
DOMNUS
EUNOICUS
VALENS
VIVIANUS
CLAUDIUS
PRISCUS
THEODULUS
EUTHYCHIUS
JOHN
XANTHIAS
HELIANUS
SISINIUS
CYRION
ANGIUS
AETIUS
FLAVIUS
ACACIUS
ECDICIUS
LYSIMACHUS
ALEXANDER
CYRIL
SACERDON
NICHOLAS
VALERIUS
PHILOCTEMON
SEVERIAN
CHUDION
AGLAIUS
THEIR MEMORY
HISTORIC ACCOUNTS
ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA
Preached the earliest surviving account, in the church built for them in Cappadocia.
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA
Preached twice in their honour, and laid his own parents to rest beside their relics.
ST. EPHRAEM THE SYRIAN
Wrote hymns for the forty.
SOZOMEN
An eye-witness to the finding of the relics in Constantinople under the Empress Pulcheria.
ST. GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA
Carried particles of their ashes home from the East and set them in the altar of his basilica.
THE ROMAN FORUM
A chapel beside Santa Maria Antiqua still holds a 6th–7th century picture of the martyrdom, once inscribed with their names.
MARCH 10th
Their feast, in the Latin Church.
