(ABOUT A.D. 320.)
[Roman Martyrology. Amongst the Greeks on March 9th; the ancient
Martyrology attributed to S. Jerome on March 9th, as also that of
Bede, and most ancient Martyrologies. In the Roman, it has been
transferred to the 10th, because the feast of S. Frances is a double.
Authorities:--The Ancient Latin and Greek Acts, the former a recension
of more ancient Acts, made in 900; the latter of less antiquity, also
the Armenian Acts. These saints are spoken of by S. Ephraem Syrus, (d.
378), and by S. Gregory Nyssen, (d. 396), and S. Basil has a sermon on
them. There is also a homily upon them extant by S. Gaudentius, B. of
Brescia, (375.) The invention of their relics is mentioned by Sozomen,
Hist. Eccl. lib. ix. c. 2.]
When the Emperor Licinius had broken with his brother-in-law
Constantine, he threw off the mask of toleration he had worn, and
openly persecuted the Christians. When in Cappadocia, he published an
edict commanding every Christian, on pain of death, to abandon his
religion. Agricola, governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, resided
at Sebaste, where S. Blaise, bishop of that city, was one of the first
victims. In the army which was quartered there was the Thundering
Legion. Its commanding officer was Lysias. Forty soldiers of that
legion, natives of different countries, but all young, brave, and
distinguished for their services, refused to sacrifice to the idols.
When Agricola announced the imperial order to the army, these forty
brave men advanced to his tribunal, and announced themselves to be
Christians. They were at once cast into prison, where they raised the
90th (91st) psalm, in solemn chant, as the darkness closed upon them;
"Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High; shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty." Our blessed Lord appeared to them, and
bade them play the man, and win the crown of victory. Then Cyrio, one
of the confessors, said to his brethren, "It has pleased God to unite
us forty brethren in one communion of faith and warfare, let us not
part in life or in death. Let us ask of God to send us forty to our
crown together."
Six or seven days after they were brought again before the governor,
and were sentenced to be exposed naked through the bitter winter night
on the ice of a pond; but he ordered that a fire and warm bath should
be prepared in a small building opening on the pond, and that any of
the confessors who should take advantage of this should be regarded as
having apostatized.
Night closed in over the city. The shops were shut; the streets
were still. Men went not willingly forth into the bitter cold. No
friendly cloud hung in the sky--it was a clear, starry night;--the
constellations glowed in the intense frost. The citizens heaped up
their fires, and gathered closer around them. The soldiers canvassed
the constancy of the sufferers. There, on the frozen pool, stood the
martyrs of Jesus Christ. From the open door of the hut, a bright
cheerful gleam of fire-light shone; reflecting itself on the clear
dark ice. Some presently fell, and slept that sleep which ends only in
death; some walked hurriedly up and down, as if to keep in the heat
of life; some stood with their arms folded, almost lost in prayer;
some consoled themselves and their brethren in the conflict. They
prayed earnestly that He, who had in a special manner consecrated the
number forty to Himself; who had bade Moses tarry in the mount forty
days, who had fed Elijah with that food, in the strength whereof he
went forty days and forty nights; who had given Nineveh forty days
for repentance; they called on Him who had Himself fasted forty days,
and had lain forty hours in death, not to fail them then. "Forty
wrestlers," they said, "O Lord, we have entered the arena; let forty
victors receive the prize!"
One of the soldiers guarding the pond was waiting by the fire, and
slept. And in his sleep he beheld this vision. He stood by the side of
the pool, and saw the martyrs in their conflict. As he gazed on them,
an angel came down from the sky with a golden crown in his hands. Its
brightness was not of this world; it was most bright, most beautiful.
He brought another, and another, and another, till the dreamer
perceived that he was charged with the everlasting diadems of the
victorious martyrs. Nine-and-thirty crowns he brought, but he came not
with the fortieth.
"What may this mean?" he asked, as he awoke. As he was wondering, there
was a stir without, and the soldiers brought in one of the confessors.
He could endure it no more, he had come to the fire and the warm bath.
He who had dreamed went forth. Still the cloudless night; still the
intense piercing blast from the range of the Caucasus. Most of the
sufferers, on the frozen pool, had fallen where they stood. To them the
bitterness of death was past; for they were in the last fatal sleep;
and their diadem, though not yet attained, were certain. Others were
praying, "Forty wrestlers we have entered the arena; let forty victors
receive the prize."
O wonderful power of prayer in all! but most wonderful virtue of
intercession in Christ's martyrs! At that moment a thought rushed into
the mind of the soldier; a thought so sweet, so cheering, that the
bitter Armenian night seemed to him as pleasant as the breath of a May
morning. "One has fallen from his crown; I may attain to it."
In half-an-hour he had roused the governor from his sleep, and had
professed himself a Christian. In half-an-hour more he stood himself
on the frozen pool, a confessor among the other confessors. And there
was yet life in some of the sufferers to hail this new brother in arms
in the spiritual warfare. He, too, contending to the end, received the
prize; the virtue of Baptism, as the Church has ever taught, being
supplied to him in this case by the grace of that martyrdom whereof he
was accounted worthy.
Morning broke at last, and a few still lived, amongst others Melithon,
the youngest of the soldiers. Agricola ordered the legs and arms of
those who survived to be broken, and as the order was carried into
execution, they sang faintly with their frozen lips, "Our soul hath
escaped out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we
are delivered." The mother of Melithon was present. She raised him in
her arms, and laid him with the other bodies in the wagon which was to
convey them to a fire in which they were all to be consumed. Melithon
still lived, and smiled faintly upon her. "Oh, son of my bosom, how
glad am I to see thee offer to Christ the last remains of thy life.
Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that thou hast
sucked!" And she followed the tumbril to the fire into which her yet
breathing son was cast, together with the frozen bodies of his comrades.
A few fragments still remain of the church, which in after years was
raised on the scene of the martyrdom. The names of these martyrs
were Quirio or Cyrio, Candidus, Domnus, Melitho, Domitian, Eunoicus,
Sisinius, Heraclius, Alexander, John, Claudius, Athanasius, Valens,
Helianus, Ecditius, Acacius, Vivianus, Helias, Theodulus, Cyrillus,
Flavius, Severian, Valerius, Chudio, Sacerdo Priscus, Eutychius,
Smaragdus, Philoctimo, Aetius, Nicolas, Lysimachus, Theophilus,
Xantheas, Augias, Leontius, Hesychius, Caius and Gorgo.