Aetius of Sebaste

Saint Aetius of Sebaste was one of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Christian soldiers who froze to death in a lake for the sake of Christ in the winter of about the year 320. They are commemorated on 9 March by the old calendar (22 March by the new), when the strictness of Great Lent is eased and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.

In the year 313 the emperor Constantine the Great issued a law granting Christians freedom of belief. Licinius, who ruled beside him, signed it too, but in his own lands the persecution went on. Around the year 320 a Roman army was stationed in the city of Sebaste in Armenia. Among its men were forty Christian soldiers, natives of Cappadocia. Their commander Agricolaus forced them to sacrifice to idols, but they refused. They were thrown into prison, where they gave themselves zealously to prayer, and one night they heard a voice: "He who endures to the end will be saved."

Since they could not be shaken either by threats or by flattery, they were brought before the distinguished official Lysias, who tried them. The saints answered: "Take not only our rank as soldiers but our lives too; nothing is dearer to us than Christ God." Lysias ordered them stoned, but the stones flew wide, and the stone Lysias himself threw struck Agricolaus in the face. Then the persecutors understood that an unseen power protected the saints.

It was winter and a hard frost. The soldiers were stripped, led to a lake near the city and kept under guard on the ice all night. To break their will, a bathhouse had been heated on the shore. Whoever wished to save his life had only to tell the jailer that he had renounced Christ, and he could go in and warm himself. In the first hour of the night, when the cold became unbearable, one of the soldiers ran to the bathhouse, but as he crossed the threshold he fell dead. About the third hour the Lord sent the martyrs comfort: it grew light, the ice melted and the water of the lake became warm. All the guards were asleep except one, named Aglaius. Looking toward the lake, he saw above the head of each martyr a shining crown. He counted thirty-⁠nine crowns and understood that the soldier who had fled had lost his. Aglaius threw off his clothes, said "I too am a Christian," and joined the martyrs, praying that he might be counted worthy to suffer with them.

In the morning the tormentors saw with astonishment that the soldiers were alive and that their own guard was glorifying Christ with them. They were taken out of the water, their shins were broken, and they were thrown into the fire. The mother of the youngest, Meliton, urged him not to be afraid and to endure to the end; while he was still alive she carried him on her shoulders behind the carts, and when he died she laid him among the bodies of the others. The burnt bones were thrown into the river so that Christians would not gather them. After three days the martyrs appeared in a dream to Peter, bishop of Sebaste, and told him to bury their remains. The bishop gathered them at night with a few clergy and buried them with honour.

The names of the forty have been kept: Cyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinnius, Aggeus, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Domitian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, Meliton and Aglaius.