Forty Martyrs of Sebaste [SEP] date of death
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/Katharevousa Greek "Ἃγιοι Τεσσεράκοντα"; Demotic: "Άγιοι Σαράντα") were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII "Fulminata" (Armed with Lightning) whose martyrdom in 320 for the Christian faith is recounted in traditional martyrologies.
They were killed near the city of Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia (present-day Sivas in Turkey), victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who after 316, persecuted the Christians of
about to freeze to death, "shivering from the cold, hugging themselves for warmth, or clasping hands to their faces or wrists in pain and despair". This is particularly evident in the large 10th-century ivory plaque from the Bode Museum and the Palaiologan portable mosaic set in wax, from Dumbarton Oaks.
The subject remains popular among Orthodox iconographers.
Veneration In the West.
Special devotion to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste was introduced at an early date into the West; their feast day is 10 March.