THESE holy martyrs suffered at Sebaste, in the Lesser Armenia, under the
emperor Licinius, in 320. They were of different countries, but enrolled
in the same troop; all in the flower of their age, comely, brave, and
robust, and were become considerable for their services. St. Gregory of
Nyssa and Procopius say, they were of the thundering legion, so famous
{561} under Marcus Aurelius for the miraculous rain and victory obtained
by their prayers. This was the twelfth legion, and then quartered in
Armenia. Lysias was duke or general of the forces, and Agricola the
governor of the province. The latter having signified to the army the
orders of the emperor Licinius, for all to sacrifice, these forty went
boldly up to him, and said they were Christians, and that no torments
should make them ever abandon their holy religion. The judge first
endeavored to gain them by mild usage; as by representing to them the
dishonor that would attend their refusal to do what was required, and by
making them large promises of preferment and high favor with the emperor
in case of compliance. Finding these methods of gentleness ineffectual,
he had recourse to threats, and these the most terrifying, if they
continued disobedient to the emperor's order, but all in vain. To his
promises they answered, that he could give them nothing equal to what he
would deprive them of: and to his threats, that his power only extended
over their bodies, which they had learned to despise when heir souls
were at stake. The governor, finding them all resolute, caused them to
be torn with whips, and their sides to be rent with iron hooks. After
which they were loaded with chains, and committed to jail.
After some days, Lysias, their governor, coming from Caesarea to Sebaste,
they were re-examined, and no less generously rejected the large
promises made them than they despised the torments they were threatened
with. The governor, highly offended at their courage, and that liberty
of speech with which they accosted him, devised an extraordinary kind of
death; which being slow and severe, he hoped would shake their
constancy. The cold in Armenia is very sharp, especially in March, and
towards the end of winter, when the wind is north, as it than was; it
being also at that time a severe frost. Under the walls of the town
stood a pond, which was frozen so hard that it would bear walking upon
with safety. The judge ordered the saints to be exposed quite naked on
the ice.[1] And in order to tempt them the more powerfully to renounce
their faith, a warm bath was prepared at a small distance from the
frozen pond, for any of this company to go to, who were disposed to
purchase their temporal ease and safety on that condition. The martyrs,
on hearing their sentence, ran joyfully to the place, and without
waiting to be stripped, undressed themselves, encouraging one another in
the same manner as is usual among soldiers in military expeditions
attended with hardships and dangers; saying, that one bad night would
purchase them a happy eternity.[2] They also made this their joint
prayer: "Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that
we may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred
number." The guards in the mean time ceased not to persuade them to
sacrifice, that by so doing they might be allowed to pass to the warm
bath. But though it is not easy to form a just idea of the bitter pain
they must have undergone, of the whole number only one had the
misfortune to be overcome; who, losing courage, went off from the pond
to seek the relief in readiness for such as were disposed to renounce
their faith: but as the devil usually deceives his adorers, the apostate
no sooner entered the warm water but he expired. This misfortune
afflicted the martyrs; but they were quickly comforted by seeing his
place and their number miraculously filled up. A sentinel was warming
himself near the bath, having been posted there to observe if any of the
martyrs were inclined to submit. While he was attending, he had a vision
of blessed spirits descending from heaven on the martyrs, and
distributing, {562} as from their king, rich presents, and precious
garments, St. Ephrem adds crowns, to all these generous soldiers, one
only excepted, who was their faint-hearted companion, already mentioned.
The guard, being struck with the celestial vision and the apostate's
desertion, was converted upon it; and by a particular motion of the Holy
Ghost, threw off his clothes, and placed himself in his stead among the
thirty-nine martyrs. Thus God heard their request, though in another
manner than they imagined: "Which, ought to make us adore the
impenetrable secrets of his mercy and justice," says St. Ephrem, "in
this instance, no less than in the reprobation of Judas, and the
election of St. Matthias."
In the morning the judge ordered both those that were dead with the
cold, and those that were still alive, to be laid on carriages, and cast
into a fire. When the rest were thrown into a wagon to be carried to the
pile, the youngest of them (whom the acts call Melito) was found alive;
and the executioners, hoping he would change his resolution when he came
to himself, left him behind. His mother, a woman of mean condition, and
a widow, but rich in faith, and worthy to have a son a martyr, observing
this false compassion, reproached the executioners; and when she came up
to her son, whom she found quite frozen, not able to stir, and scarce
breathing, he looked on her with languishing eyes, and made a little
sign with his weak hand to comfort her. She exhorted him to persevere to
the end, and, fortified by the Holy Ghost, took him up, and put him with
her own hands into the wagon with the rest of the martyrs, not only
without shedding a tear, but with a countenance full of joy, saying,
courageously: "Go, go, son, proceed to the end of this happy journey
with thy companions, that thou mayest not be the last of them that shall
present themselves before God." Nothing can be more inflamed or more
pathetic than the discourse which St. Ephrem puts into her mouth, by
which he expresses her contempt of life and all earthly things, and her
ardent love and desire of eternal life. This holy father earnestly
entreats her to conjure this whole troop of martyrs to join in imploring
the divine mercy in favor of his sinful soul.[3] Their bodies were
burned, and their ashes thrown into the river; but the Christians
secretly carried off, or purchased part of them with money. Some of
these precious relies were kept at Caesarea, and St. Basil says of them:
"Like bulwarks, they are our protection against the inroads of
enemies."[4] He adds, that every one implored their succor, and that
they raised up those that had fallen, strengthened the weak, and
invigorated the fervor of the saints. SS. Basil and Emmelia, the holy
parents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of
Sebaste, and St. Macrina, procured a great share of these relics.[5] St.
Emmelia put some of them in the church she built near Anneses, the
village where they resided. The solemnity with which they were received
was extraordinary, and they were honored by miracles, as St. Gregory
relates. One of these was a miraculous cure wrought on a lame soldier,
the truth of which he attests from his own knowledge, both of the fact
and the person, who published it everywhere. He adds: "I buried the
bodies of my parents by the relics of these holy martyrs, that in the
resurrection they may rise with the encouragers of their faith; for I
know they have great power with God, of which I have seen clear proofs
and undoubted testimonies." St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, writes in
his sermon on these martyrs: "God gave me a share of these venerable
relics and granted me to found this church in their honor."[6] He says,
that the two nieces of St. Basil, both abbesses, gave them to him as
{563} he passed by Caesarea, in a journey to Jerusalem; which venerable
treasure they had received from their uncle. Portions of their relics
were also carried to Constantinople, and there honored with great
veneration, as Sozomen[7] and Procopius[8] have recorded at large, with
an account of several visions and miracles, which attended the
veneration paid to them in that city.
* * * * *
Though we are not all called to the trial of martyrdom, we are all bound
daily to fight and to conquer too. By multiplied victories which we gain
over our passions and spiritual enemies, by the exercise of meekness,
patience, humility, purity, and all other virtues, we shall render our
triumph complete, and attain to the crown of bliss. But are we not
confounded at our sloth in our spiritual warfare, when we look on the
conflicts of the martyrs? "The eloquence of the greatest orators, and
the wisdom of the philosophers were struck dumb: the very tyrants and
judges stood amazed, and were not able to find words to express their
admiration, when they beheld the faith, the cheerfulness and constancy
of the holy martyrs in their sufferings. But what excuse shall we allege
in the tremendous judgment, who, without meeting with such cruel
persecution and torments, are so remiss and slothful in maintaining the
spiritual life of our souls, and the charity of God! What shall we do in
that terrible day, when the holy martyrs, placed near the throne of God,
with great confidence shall display their glorious scars, the proofs of
their fidelity? What shall we then show? shall we produce our love for
God? true faith? a disengagement of our affections from earthly things?
souls freed from the tyranny of the passions? retirement and peace of
mind? meekness? alms-deeds and compassion? holy and pure prayer? sincere
compunction? watching and tears? Happy shall he be whom these works
shall attend. He shall then be the companion of the martyrs, and shall
appear with the same confidence before Christ and his angels. We beseech
you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered torments and death for
his love, and are now more familiarly united to him, that you intercede
with God for us slothful and wretched sinners, that he bestow on us the
grace of Christ, by which we may be enlightened and enabled to love
him."[9]
Footnotes:
1. The acts and the greater part of the writers of their lives, suppose
that they were to stand in the very water. But this is a
circumstance which Tillemont, Badlet, Ruinart, Ceillier and others,
correct from St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa.
2. St. Gregory of Nyssa says, that they endured three days and three
nights, this lingering death, which carried off their limbs one
after another.
3. S. Ephrem, Or. in 40 Mart. t. 2, Op. Gr. and Lat. p. 354, ed. Nov.
Vatic. an. 1743.
4. St. Basil, Or. 20, 459.
5. St. Greg. Nyss. Or. 3, de 40 Mart. t. 2, pp. 212, 213.
6. S. Gaud. Bris. Serm. 17, de 40 Mart.
7. L. 9, c. 1, 2.
8. L. 1, de aedific. Justinian, c. 7.
9. S. Ephrem in Homil. in SS. Martyres, Op Gr. and Lat. ed. Vat. an
174{} t. 2, p. 341.