E01303: The Greek Martyrdom of the *Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (S00103), of the late 4th to 6h c., recounts the martyrdom of forty Christian soldiers in a lake outside Sebasteia/Sebaste (eastern Asia Minor), including miracles and visions happening during and after their death. After a revelation, the bishop collects their relics. Probably written in Sebasteia.

Martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (BHG 1201)

Summary:

(1.) A great persecution of Christians is carried out, under the emperor Licinius and the cruel provincial governor (hēgemōn) Agrikolaos (Agricola). The situation is aggravated by a famine in Cappadocia, and all Christians in the army are forced to sacrifice. Forty Cappadocian Christians serve in a numerus of the army, living in piety and being invincible at war. Their names are: Dometianos, Hēsychios, Smaragdos, Melitōn, Hērakleios, Alexandros, Eutychios, Lysimachos, Athanasios, Kyrillos, Eunoikos, Sevērianos, Ekdikios, Akakios, Iōannēs, Sakerdōn, Gorgonios, Oualerios, Hēlianos, Sisinnios, Aggias, Philoktēmōn, Oualēs, Klaudios, Priskos, Flavios, Aetios, Choudiōn, Theodoulos, Hēlias, Xanthios, Gaios, Kyriōn, Vivianos, Domnos, Eutychos, Leontios, Nikallos, Kandidos, and Theophilos. They are imprisoned and required to sacrifice. They refuse and are taken to prison where they pray reciting Psalm 139.

(2.) In the evening, they sing Psalm 90 and keep praying till midnight, with Kyriōn leading the psalmody, and Kandidos and Domnos leading the responses. Christ is revealed to them saying that their intention is good, but only those who endure to the end will be saved (Mt 24.13; Mc. 13.13).

(3) The governor summons the saints and warns them not to turn the special love they enjoy into hatred. Kandidos rebukes him. The governor orders them to be fettered and imprisoned. Kyriōn complains that the governor has no right to torture them, and the governor, afraid, orders them to be kept unfettered by the capitularius Aglaios. Kyriōn teaches the martyrs all day and night.

(4.) Seven days later, on the eighth day, the dux (military commander), Lysias, arrives from Kaisareia/Caesarea to Sebasteia/Sebaste, and sits on the tribune with the governor. The martyrs are brought there, while being encouraged by Kyriōn.

(5.) The dux promises them honours and gifts if they sacrifice, otherwise he threatens to remove them from office and the army, and to punish them. Kandidos calls him to take both their offices and their bodies, and the dux orders their faces to be beaten with stones, but, when his servants take the stones, they start hitting one another. Enraged, the dux takes a stone too, but he hits the face of the governor. The martyrs are encouraged.

(6.) The martyrs are taken back to jail and, led by Kyriōn, they sing Psalm 122. Christ appears and encourages them.

(7.) In the morning of the ninth day, the martyrs are taken before the persecutors. The Devil appears, holding a knife and a dragon, and encouraging Agrikolaos to fight for him. The latter orders them to be fettered by the necks and taken to a lake near Sebasteia. In the afternoon of an extremely cold day, the martyrs are left naked in the middle of the lake. A bathhouse nearby is heated for those who would apostatise.

(8.) Around the first hour of the night, the martyrs are freezing, and one of them is turned and goes to the bath. Touched by the heat, his body is immediately destroyed. Distressed, the martyrs pray quoting from the Bible.

(9.) Around the third hour of the night, the sun shines above them, warm like summer, and the water becomes warm. All their guards are asleep, except for the capitularius who hears their prayers and has a vision of thirty-nine crowns coming down from heaven. He realises that the apostate has been deprived of his position among the martyrs. Waking the guards, he takes off his clothes and jumps into the lake shouting that he is a Christian himself.

(10.) Satan appears in the form of a man, with his hands tied on his knees, admitting his defeat, but declaring that he will inspire the persecutors to burn the martyrs’ bodies, and to throw them into the river, so that no relics of them will be found. Kyriōn and the martyrs give thanks singing from Psalms 17 and 76.

(11.) In the morning, the tyrants come and hear from the soldiers what happened during the night. They order that the martyrs be taken ashore and their limbs be broken with clubs. The mother of the youngest martyr, Melitōn, follows the martyrs, encouraging her son. The martyrs die reciting Psalm 123.

(12.) Melitōn is still alive and is left by the shore, when the dead bodies of the rest are loaded on wagons and taken to be burned. His mother takes him on her back and follows the wagons. He dies and she throws him onto the pile of the other bodies, which is lit and burned.

The last paragraph is as follows:

13. Καὶ σκεψάμενοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους οἱ τύρρανοι εἶπον· Ταῦτα τὰ λείψανα ἐὰν οὕτως ἀφῶμεν, ἀροῦσιν οἱ Χριστιανοὶ καὶ πληρώσουσιν ὅλον τὸν κόσμον. δεῦτε οὖν ῥίψωμεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν. Καὶ ξύσαντες καὶ κοσμήσαντες τὸν τόπον τὰ λείψανα τῶν ἁγίων ἔρριψαν εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν σύνεγγυς. συνήχθησαν δὲ τὰ λείψανα τῶν ἁγίων πρὸς τὸν κρυμνόν, καὶ οὐδὲν αὐτῶν ἐμείωσεν ὁ ποταμός. μετὰ δὲ ἡμέρας τρεῖς ἀπεκαλύφθη τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ τῆς πόλεως Πέτρῳ ὅτι· Εἰσὶν πεφυλαγμένα τὰ λείψανα ἡμῶν ἐν τῳ ποταμῷ, ἐλθὲ οὖν διὰ νυκτὸς καὶ ἔκβαλε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ· καὶ παραλαβὼν ὁ ἐπίσκοπος κληρικοὺς ἄνδρας εὐλαβεῖς, ἔλθὼν ἔστη παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τοῦ ποταμοῦ, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἔλαμπον τὰ λείψανα τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ ὕδατι ὡς φωστῆρες, καὶ εἴ που ὑπελίφθη λείψανον, διὰ τοῦ φέγγους κατεμηνύετο. καὶ οὕτως ἀνελόμενοι τὰ λείψανα τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων ἀπέθεντο ἐν γλωσσοκόμοις. οὕτως ἀθλήσαντες καὶ τελειωθέντες λάμπουσιν ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ· θεῷ πιστεύσαντες, Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσαντες, τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα μὴ ἀρνησάμενοι συνεδοξάσθησαν τῷ Χριστῷ μνήμην τῷ βίῳ καταλιπόντες ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ πάντων τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα· ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν.

‘And the tyrants discussed with one another and said: “If we leave these relics like this, the Christians will collect them and will fill the whole world. So let us throw them into the river.” And they scraped and tidied the place, and threw the relics into the nearby river. And the relics of the saints were gathered together towards the cliff, and the river did not reduce any of them. Now three days later, it was revealed to the bishop of the city, Petros, that: ‘Our relics are preserved in the river; so come at night, and take us out of the river.’ And the bishop took some pious clergymen and came and stood on the bank of the river, and, lo, the relics of the saints were shining in the water like lights, and if a relic was left somewhere, it was indicated by the light. And thus they collected the relics of the holy martyrs and placed them in coffins. Having contested and been consummated in such a way, they shine like lights in the world. As they believed in God, confessed Christ, and did not deny the Holy Spirit, they shared in the glory of Christ, having left their memory in the world for the salvation of all those who believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To him be the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.’

In two of the manuscripts, the text finishes indicating 9 March as the feast day (BHG 1201c, 1201d)

Text: Gebhardt 1902. Summary and translation: Efthymios Rizos.