Gorgonius of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Gorgonius of Sebaste is one of the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste in Armenia. The calendar says nothing of him beyond his name in the list of the forty; for that reason we give the story of them all.

In the year 313 Emperor Constantine the Great issued the law of freedom of faith, which Emperor Licinius also signed, but in the lands under Licinius the persecution of Christians continued. About the year 320, in the city of Sebaste in Armenia, there was a Roman army, in which forty Christian soldiers from Cappadocia served. The commander Agricolaus forced them to sacrifice to idols, but they refused. Shut first in prison, they prayed earnestly and one night heard a voice: he who endures to the end will be saved. Then Agricolaus tried to entice them with praise, to no avail, and an official, Lysias, ordered them stoned, but the stones flew wide of their targets, and the stone thrown by Lysias struck Agricolaus in the face.

It was winter and a hard frost. The soldiers were stripped and led onto the frozen lake near the city, where they were left under guard through the night. On the shore, as a temptation, a warm bath had been prepared, which anyone who renounced Christ could enter. All night they endured the cold, encouraging one another and singing hymns to God. One of them could endure no longer; he left the lake and ran to the bath, but as soon as he crossed the threshold he fell dead. Then the Lord sent consolation to the martyrs: light shone, the ice melted and the water grew warm. The guard Aglaius, the only one awake, saw above the head of each martyr a crown of light, and counted thirty-⁠nine. He understood that the soldier who had fled had lost his crown; he threw off his clothes, said that he too was a Christian and joined the martyrs.

In the morning the tormentors drew them out of the water, broke their shins and threw them into the fire. The mother of the youngest, Meliton, urged him to endure to the end and, when the young man still breathed and had been left on the ground, she lifted him and carried him on her shoulders after the cart, then laid him with the others. The burned bones were thrown into the river. After three days the martyrs appeared to Bishop Peter of Sebaste and commanded him to bury them. The bishop gathered their bones and buried them with honour.

The commemoration of the forty martyrs is among the most honoured feasts, and on their day, 9 March on the old style (22 March on the new), the strictness of Great Lent is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.