Saint of March 10: 40 martyrs of Sebast. Catholic Santoral

Every March 10, the Universal Church reminds the ’40 martyrs’, better known as the Martires of Sebast.

By 320, the Roman emperor Licino issued a decree in which the death penalty for every Christian who is not able to deny his faith was ordered.

A group of brave soldiers of Legion XII “Fulminata”, converts to Christianity, let the Governor of Sebastte know (then capital of the province of “Minor Armenia”, today Turkey) that they would not offer incense to any pagan idol and that they would remain faithful to Jesus Christ, whom they recognized as the only God.

The governor, then, took them prisoners and locked them in a dark dungeon. While they remained in their cells, a miraculous event occurred: the place, usually dark and dreary, illuminated, and a voice was heard that encouraged them to suffer with courage.

That voice was that of our Lord, who manifested in order to give them the necessary strength to face death.

The sentence

It was ruled that the forty men die of cold, exposed to the very low temperatures of the crude winter of the region. “For this ice night we will get the endless day of glory in happy eternity,” they replied, knowing the altar of the sacrifice. In voice in the neck they cried the Lord to encourage each other, while waiting to be transferred to the place of martyrdom.

Then, the governor’s men tied them and took them out of that place, and led them to a nearby lake. He wore a thick ice layer that covered it almost completely.

When they were forced to undress to enter the cold waters, one of them exclaimed: “When we remove the clothes, we stripped ourselves of the old man; winter is hard, but paradise is sweet; the cold is very strong, but the glory will be more pleasant.”

Always forty

Very close to the lake there was a pond with warm water waiting for him who wanted to discourage himself to face death. It turned out that one of them abandoned the group and was taken to the hot water pond. When that man touched the warm waters, he died at the moment.

The tradition – recognized mostly by San Basilio – adds that forty angels went down from heaven, each wearing a crown to place them in the heads of the men who were about to deliver life. However, one of them was left alone, not finding who to give the sacred prize: he was the angel of the deserter’s guard.

At that time, a governor’s guard, seeing that the martyrs continued to pray and sing hymns, shouted: “I also believe in Christ,” and was introduced by their own means into frozen waters. At that time, that convert could see the angel he had defected by heading towards him, with the crown of martyrdom in his hands.

A mother next to her son

Meanwhile, the soldiers insisted with the youngest among the forties to discourage. Among those who witnessed the scene was the mother of that young man. She urged him to remain faithful no longer losing his mood.

At dawn, the martyrs who managed to survive were taken from the waters, broke their legs and let them die. Among the survivors was that boy, but who was already dying, and ended up dying in his mother’s arms.

When everything ended, the Commander of the Imperial Army ordered the bodies to be burned. However, for God’s glory, it was not possible and many of the remains were rescued by other Christians and distributed as relics in different places.

The memory of those who die for Christ

Christians in the East celebrate the forty martyrs on March 9, while in the West we do it the tenth day of the month. This celebration coincides with the days of Lent, and can help us deepen the path of faith, which is a path of love, delivery and sacrifice.

As well as those martyrs, at the beginning of the 20th century (1915-1923), many men, women and children suffered from their faith in the same lands, today belonging to Turkey, when the genocide against the Armenian people occurred, massacred at the hands of the Turkish Empire (Ottoman Empire), also because of their Christian faith.

To learn more about the history of these saints enter HERE