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Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/Katharevousa Greek Ἅγιοι Τεσσαράκοντα; Demotic: Άγιοι Σαράντα) were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata (Armed with Lightning) whose martyrdom in the year 320 AD for the Christian faith is recounted in traditional martyrologies.

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

c. 320 Anno Domini, Sebaste
(modern-day Sivas, Turkey)

Emperor Licinius

Exposure

Pre-Congregation

9 March
10 March (pre-1970 General Roman Calendar)[1]

Crown of martyrdom
Martyr's palm

Persecuted Christians

They were killed near the city of Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia (present-day Sivas in Turkey), victims of the persecutions of Licinius who, after 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their existence and martyrdom is given by Bishop Basil of Caesarea (370–379) in a homily he delivered on their feast day.[2] The Feast of the Forty Martyrs is thus older than Basil himself, who eulogised them only fifty or sixty years after their deaths.

Hesychius, Meliton, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Domnus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Euthychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinius, Cyrion, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecditius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Candidus, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Gorgonius, Eutyches, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, and Aglaius.

[4]

The Menaion of the Eastern Orthodox Church lists the names of the Forty Martyrs as follows:


According to Antonio Borrelli, their names were:

20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia

42 Martyrs of Amorium

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

in "Ælfric's Lives of Saints", by Ælfric of Eynsham London, Pub. for the Early English text society, by N. Trübner & co. (1881).

Of the Forty Soldiers (Mar. 9)

Kirsch, Johann Peter (1909). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

"Forty Martyrs" 

40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste - Eastern Orthodox icon and synaxarion

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