The Temple GalleryEstablished 1959 |
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A015. The Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia.Russian, circa 1800 [ Click on any image for a larger view ] The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata, who became martyrs for their Christian faith in 320. They were killed near Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia, victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who, after the year 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their existence and martyrdom is given by St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (370–379), in a homily delivered on the feast of the Forty Martyrs (Hom. xix in P.G., XXXI, 507 sqq.). According to St. Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant. One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs beheld at this moment a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and placed himself beside the thirty-nine soldiers of Christ. Thus the number of forty remained complete. The veneration paid to the Forty Martyrs became widespread, and numerous churches were erected in their honour. Detail Images
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