Remembrance Day of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste

The Orthodox Church celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste on March 22 The feat of Christian martyrs occurred in the 4th century, when the life of every Christian was in danger and faith required true courage from its followers The Great Roman Empire of that time was divided into Western and Eastern parts The ruler of Eastern Rome, Constantine, declared freedom of religion, which equalized the rights of followers of Christ and pagans But the emperor of the Western part of the empire, Licinius, was prejudiced towards Christians Having decided to make a military campaign against Constantine, Licinius ordered to clear his troops of Christians, suspecting them of being prone to treason In the Armenian city of Sebastia, there served a squad consisting of forty Capadocian Christian warriors, famous for their courage and courage in numerous battles Despite their loyalty to military duty, the warriors refused to bow before pagan idols, for which they were subjected to severe trials First, the soldiers were imprisoned; the men did not complain or make excuses, but devoted themselves to prayer Their appeal to God was heard, and at night the worshipers heard a voice that strengthened their faith After seven days, the vigilantes were put on trial and sentenced to stoning The martyrs were ready to humbly accept execution, but the Lord revealed his will to those present The stones flew away from the bodies of the Christian soldiers, leaving them unharmed Realizing that the vigilantes are protected by an unknown force and the execution has been thwarted, the judges decide to use torture to force Christians to renounce their faith in one God They are taken to the frozen Lake Sevastia and left to spend the night on bare ice For temptation, a warm bathhouse is installed on the shore of the lake, into which every warrior who has apostatized from Christianity can go The frost became stronger and stronger, and the torment of the husbands became more and more unbearable One warrior separated from his comrades and ran to the bathhouse But as soon as he crossed her threshold, death struck him in an instant The saints remaining on the ice continued to pray and praise the Lord At three o'clock in the morning, warmth spread around the martyrs, and 39 shining crowns descended from the sky The guard standing on the shore, seeing the miracle taking place, believed in the Savior Jesus, joined the holy men, replacing their fellow apostate The judges, seeing in the morning that the wars were not affected by the frost and were still glorifying Christ, arranged the next torment The men's legs are broken with hammers and burned The Sebastian martyrs die, but the Lord leaves their bones intact for burial The insidious tormentors throw the remains into the river, but even there the bones do not disappear Soon the souls of the martyrs appear to Bishop Sebastia with a request to bury their remains Christians found the bones of those executed glowing in the river and buried them with honor The names and feats of the forty Sebastian martyrs were recorded and preserved for posterity In folk tradition, the memory of the forty martyrs was reflected in weather signs The warm weather on March 22 promised another 40 similar warm days, the same applied to the arrival of cold weather Buckwheat should have been planted after 40 sunrises And 40 baked balls could help protect against frost, the main thing was not to forget to throw one ball at a time onto the street in the morning