On the Commemoration of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
The word "martyr" is translated from Greek as "witness" (Greek: μάρτυς, Latin: martyr – witness). Today is the feast day of the forty martyrs to the defeat of death by the death of Christ. The day when a Christian is killed for Christ is not a day of mourning or tragedy for us; it is a day of joy and happiness. Because this man went out to do battle with the prince of darkness, Lucifer, and he fought and defeated him. Isn't that joy? For us, the feast day of the forty martyrs of Sebaste is a day of great triumph and victory over the enemy. The enemy always intimidates and blackmails people with death. The slogan of terrorists is always: "If you don't heed our demands, we will kill you!"
This is precisely how the enemy of the human race exercises power over people. Scripture says that the devil has the power of death. He intimidates and blackmails people with the help of death, but the martyrs manifest in themselves the power of the Resurrection. Death is conquered by the death of Christ, and there will be a resurrection of the body. Therefore, we have nothing to fear, since not only the soul will be freed, but also the body — from the slavery of corruption and decay. Therefore, for us, the holy martyrs are an example of amazing courage and victory. The Martyrs of Sebaste, whom we remember today, are truly martyrs, for whom the words of King David were fulfilled: "We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into freedom" (Ps. 65:11).
These were forty soldiers who refused to sacrifice to Zeus. They were tortured, and then the emperor decided to mock them with a sophisticated execution. They were left to freeze in the icy waters of a mountain lake, and a bathhouse was built nearby so that anyone who wished to renounce Christ and worship pagan gods could enter and warm up. And so, in the twilight of a cold March evening, the Christian soldiers stood in the icy lake, praying to God and singing psalms. One of them, unable to bear it, abandoned everything and ran to the bathhouse. But as soon as he reached it, the contrast between the cold and the heat overwhelmed his heart, and he died on the spot, thereby losing both his temporal and eternal life as a traitor.
At this time, the martyrs begin to be overcome by a terrible cold, and they pray to God for deliverance. A pagan guard guarding the bathhouse witnesses the following scene: the sky opens, from beyond which an unimaginable light pours forth. The face of Christ appears, bestowing forty crowns upon the martyrs, but one of the crowns falls to the side (because one has denied it). The pagan guard, desiring this crown, throws off his clothes and plunges into the cold lake, shouting, "I too am a Christian, I too want a crown!" Toward morning, the Lord performs His miracle again, and the water in the lake becomes warm. Then, in a rage, the governor orders the Christians' legs broken and the disobedient burned at the stake, which was done. The bones of the martyrs were thrown into the lake. A few days later, they were collected by Christians and placed in a reliquary, and the relics immediately began to exude healing, a phenomenon that continues to this day. Particles of the relics of all forty martyrs are kept today at the Bulgarian Compound in Moscow – the “Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos” in Gonchar on Taganka.
The martyrs themselves are now where the holy recruit, Quadrant, saw them. They are beyond the starry sky, in paradise. Standing in the cold lake, they consoled each other with the words: "The water is icy, but it is warm in paradise. We will fight here to receive a reward there. We lost the warmth of paradise by disobeying our ancestors, so now we must strip naked to fight the serpent who deprived us of this garment, and receive rewards." They fought and won. And this wondrous victory they achieved inspires us too. We must overcome the fear of death, this panicky terror inherent in all atheists. We must not simply fight, but win, since for Christians, victory is what matters most, not participation. One of them began the fight but lost and lost everything. Therefore, we must fight and remain faithful to God to the end, and then the heavenly crown will crown our heads, and the warmth of paradise will open its arms to us. Let us pray that the Lord will grant us this, and that the warmth of paradise will be revealed to our deceased relatives and friends, so that they will be delivered from the terrible flames of Gehenna and from the cold of Tartarus.
May God help us all!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
