Forty Martyrs
Catholic Information
A party of soldiers who suffered a cruel death for their faith, 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
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.).
|
|
The feast is consequently more ancient than the episcopate of Basil, whose
eulogy on them was pronounced only fifty or sixty years after martyrdom, which
is thus historic beyond a doubt. 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. At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still
showed signs of life, were burned and the ashes cast into a river. The
Christians, however, collected the precious remains, and the relics were
distributed throughout many cities; in this way the veneration paid to the Forty
Martyrs became widespread, and numerous churches were erected in their honour.
One of them was built at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and it was in this church that
St. Basil publicly delivered his homily. St. Gregory of Nyssa was a special
client of these holy martyrs. Two discourses in praise of them, preached by him
in the church dedicated to them, are still preserved (P. G., XLVI, 749 sqq., 773
sqq.) and upon the death of his parents, he laid them to rest beside the relics
of the confessors. St. Ephraem, the Syrian, has also eulogized the forty Martyrs
(Hymni in SS. 40 martyres). Sozomen, who was an eye-witness, has left us (Hist.
Eccl., IX, 2) an interesting account of the finding of the relics in
Constantinople through the instrumentality of the Empress Pulcheria. Special
devotion to the forty martyrs of Sebaste was introduced at an early date into
the West. St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia in the beginning of the fifth
century (d. about 410 or 427), received particles of the ashes of martyrs during
a voyage in the East, and placed them with other relics in the altar of the
basilica which he had erected, at the consecration of which he delivered a
discourse, still extant (P. L., XX, 959 sqq.) Near the Church of Santa Maria
Antiqua, in the Roman Forum, built in the fifth century, a chapel was found,
built, like the church itself, on an ancient site, and consecrated to the Forty
Martyrs. A picture, still preserved there, dating from the sixth or seventh
century, depicts the scene of the martyrdom. The names of the confessors, as we
find them also in later sources, were formerly inscribed on this fresco. Acts of
these martyrs, written subsequently, in Greek, Syriac and Latin, are yet extant,
also a "Testament" of the Forty Martyrs. Their feast is celebrated in the Greek,
as well as in the Latin Church, on 9 March.
Publication information
Written by J.P. Kirsch. Transcribed by Mary and Joseph P. Thomas. In memory of
Father Joseph Paredom
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI. Published 1909. New York: Robert Appleton
Company. Nihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
The individual articles presented here were generally first published
in the early 1980s. This subject presentation was first placed
on the Internet in December 1997.
This page - -
- - is at
This subject presentation was last updated on - -
Copyright Information
Send an e-mail question or comment to us:
E-mail
The main BELIEVE web-page (and the index to subjects) is at:
BELIEVE Religious Information Source - By Alphabet
http://mb-soft.com/believe/indexaz.html