Hesychius of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Hesychius of Sebaste is one of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Christian soldiers who died frozen on a lake in the winter of the year 320 for confessing Christ. They are commemorated on 22 March (new style, 9 March in the old style), when the strictness of Great Lent is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.

In the year 313 Emperor Constantine the Great issued the law of freedom of faith. His co-⁠ruler Licinius signed it too, but in his lands the persecution continued. Licinius was preparing war with Constantine and, fearing treason, resolved to purge Christians from the army. In Armenian Sebaste the commander Agricolaus, a fervent adherent of paganism, had under him a band of forty Cappadocians, brave soldiers, all Christians. When they refused to sacrifice to idols, he shut them up. They were led bound to a frozen lake near the city and placed naked on the ice for the night. On the shore a bath had been heated as a temptation for any who would renounce. All night the soldiers endured the frost, encouraging one another and singing hymns. Toward morning one of them could not endure it, came out of the water and rushed to the bath, but, barely touched by the warm air, fell dead.

Then the guard Aglaius saw a heavenly light over those who remained in the lake, declared that he was a Christian, took off his clothes and joined the thirty-⁠nine. The next day the tormentors saw that the soldiers had not only not frozen but seemed warmed. They crushed their legs with hammers and threw them into the fire, and the burned bones they cast into the river. After three days the martyrs appeared to Bishop Peter of Sebaste and told him what had happened. The bishop gathered their bones and buried them with honour. Their names have been preserved: Kyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinius, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Domitian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, Meliton and Aglaius.