The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

We would remiss on this March 10th if we didn’t mention the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a group of elite Roman legionaries – called the Fulminata (‘the ligthning’ regiment) – who en masse professed Christianity, and were condemned to death. This was under the persecution of Emperor Licinius in the east. He would meet his own end soon enough, defeated by Constantine at the battle of Chrysopolis four year later, and executed. Sic transit gloria mundi.

The martyrdom occurred in the winter of 320 A.D., in what was then Armenia (now Turkey). The soldiers were ordered to strip naked, and left on an icy lake to freeze to death. A warm bath was waiting for those who apostatized – one did, and the shock of the primitive hot tub (maybe a tad too hot) sadly killed him. One of the guards, seeing this, along with a luminous supernatural light over the slowly dying martyrs, stripped himself, and joined the martyrs. So the biblical number of forty was maintained.

This all resonates with me, living in a land of remote frozen lakes, having traversed across many of them in skis and snowshoes. I once got sort of stuck in some slush, and thought, what if I sink far enough, so that I can’t move, and they find me a frozen popsicle in a day or two? The death is rather unpleasant, at least in its initial stages – intense pain in the extremities, followed by frostbite, uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, panic, confused thoughts. The internal body temperature drops, and the internal organs slowly stop working. But at some point, a strange euphoria sets in, even a sense of warmth. They’ve found victims of hypothermia who have – like the martyrs – divested themselves of their clothing. This is not to diminish the benefits of cold water and ice baths, which are invigorating and healthy. But do as I say, and not as I do.

Anon, by morning, the soldiers were either dead or unconscious, some still with signs of life, so they were ironically burned to death. This was not a Sam McGee moment, except in the sense that the soldiers who met their earthly end did ‘awake’ to more relief than they could ever imagine – the glories of paradise.

Many of the Fathers had a great devotion to the Martyrs, including Gregory of Nyssa, who had his parents buried near their relics. Saint Basil of Caesarea preached a rousing homily on their feast day, a few decades after their martyrdom, testifying to their historical veracity. The Orthodox Church keeps the names of each one of them.

These noble Christian soldiers offer an example to us all to keep and preach the Faith, not least by our very lives, in season and out of season, in frost and chill, snow and cold. The fire of charity will be warmth enough.

Holy Martyrs of Sebaste, orate pro nobis! +

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Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

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My Name is Bernadette

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Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy

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Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

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Saint Gemma Galgani

On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→

An Ideological and Improper Translation

I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→