THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTIA OR SEBASTE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTIA OR SEBASTE

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. First Tone

Be Thou entreated for the sake of the sufferings of Thy Saints which
they endured for Thee, O Lord, and do Thou heal all our pains, we pray,
O Friend of man.

Kontakion Hymn. Plagal of Second Tone

Having left every military array of the world, ye cleaved unto the
Master Who is in the Heavens, O Forty Prizewinners of the Lord:
for having passed through fire and water, O blessed ones, ye
rightly received glory from Heaven and a multitude of crowns.

These were all soldiers in the Roman army , but believed firmly in the Lord Jesus. When a persecution arose in the time of Licinius, they were all taken for trial before the Commander, who threatened to strip them of their military status. To this one of them, Saint Candidus, replied: "Do not take only our military status, but also our bodies; nothing is dearer or of greater honor to us than Christ our God." Then the Commander ordered his servants to stone the holy Martyrs to death. But when the servants threw the stones at the Christians, the stones turned back and fell on them themselves, causing them grievous injuries. One stone fell on the Commander’s face and smashed his teeth. The torturers, in bestial fury, bound the holy Martyrs and threw them into a lake, setting a watch all round it to prevent any of them escaping. There was a terrible frost, and the lake froze around the bodies of the Martyrs. To make the torture worse, the torturers built and lit baths by the lae, in the sight of the freezing sufferers, with the idea that one of them might deny Christ and acknowledge the idols of Rome. In fact, one of them did abjure, came out of the water and went into the baths. But during the night a strange light appeared from heaven, which heated the water in the lake and the bodies of the Martyrs, and with that light there descended from heaven thirty-nine wreaths for their heads. One of the sentries on the shore saw this, confessed the name of Christ and went into the lake to be worthy of the fortieth wreath in place of the traitor. And the fortieth was seen to descend upon him. The next day, the whole town was amazed to see the Martyrs still alive. Then the wicked judges commanded that their legs be broken and their bodies thrown into the water, so that the Christians should not be able to find them. On the third day the Martyrs appeared to the local bishop. Peter, and told him to search beneath the water and bring out their holy relics. The bishop went out on a dark night with his clergy, and saw where the Martyrs’ relics were glowing in the water. Every bone that had been broken off from their bodies rose to the surface and burned there like a candle. They gathered them, and gave them burial, and the souls of these Holy Martyrs went to Him Who was martyred for us all and rose with glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. They suffered with honor and were crowned32 with unfading glory in A.D 320.

Our Holy Orthodox Church in all times, following Sacred Tradition, has shown honor to holy relics. This honor has been expressed (a) in the reverent collection and preservation of the remains of the Saints of God, as is known from accounts even of the 2nd Century, and then from the testimonies of later times (b) in the solemn uncovering and translation of holy relics; (c) in the building over them of churches and altars; (d) in the establishment of feasts in memory of their uncovering or translation; (e) in pilgrimages to holy tombs, and in adorning them; and (f) in the constant rule of the Church to place holy relics of holy Martyrs at the dedication of altars, or to place holy relics in the holy Antimension upo n which is performed the Divine Liturgy.

This very natural honor given to the holy relics and other remains of the Saints of God has a firm foundation in the fact that God Himself has deigned to honor and glorify them by innumerable signs and miracles—something for which there is testimony throughout the whole course of the Church’s history.

Even in the Old Testament, when Saints were not venerated with a special glorification after death, there were signs from the bodies of the righteous. Thus, the body of a certain dead man, after being touched to the bones of the Prophet Elisha in his tomb, immediately came to life, and the dead man arose (IV [II] Kings 13:21). The body of the Holy Prophet Elijah was raised up alive into heaven, and the mantle of Elijah, which was left by him to Elisha, parted by its touch the waters of the Jordan River for the crossing of the river by Elisha.

Turning to the New Testament, we read in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles that handkerchiefs and belts ("aprons") from the body of the Apostle Paul were placed upon the sick, and the diseases of the sick were cured, and evil spirits departed from them (Acts 19:12). The Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church have testified before their hearers and readers of the miracles occurring from the remains of the Saints, and often they have called their contemporaries to be witnesses at the uncovering of the holy relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius: "You have known and even seen yourselves many who have been delivered from demons, and even more of those who had no sooner touched the garments of the Saints with their hands than immediately they were healed of their infirmities.

Already from the beginning of the 2nd Century there is information on the honor given by Christians to the remains of saints. Thus, after describing the Martyr’s death of Saint Ignatius the God-bearer Bishop of Antioch, a person who witnessed this death states that "Of what remained from his body (he was born to pieces by beasts in the circus), only the firmest parts were taken away to Antioch and placed in a linen as an invaluable treasure of the Grace which dwelt in the Martyr, a treasure left to the Holy Church," (Resources: The Prologue from Ochrid and Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)

___________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George