John of Sebaste

Holy Martyr John of Sebaste belongs to the forty martyrs of Sebaste in Armenia, Christian soldiers from Cappadocia who suffered for Christ around the year 320. The Azbyka page tells the passion of all of them and says nothing particular about him.

The law of freedom of faith, given by Constantine the Great in the year 313, did not stop the persecution in the lands of Licinius, whose troops were stationed at Sebaste. The commander Agricolaus tried to force the forty Christian soldiers to sacrifice to idols and shut them up. In prison a voice was heard that strengthened them with the word that whoever endures to the end will be saved. Before the governor Lysias, the martyrs answered that they would give up their rank at any time, and their lives too, since nothing was dearer to them than Christ. The stones thrown at them did not reach their mark. Then they were taken in winter to a frozen lake and left there all night, while on the shore a warm bath burned for whoever should renounce.

One alone weakened and died on the threshold of the bath. Around midnight the ice melted, the water warmed and a light filled the lake. The guard Aglaius saw bright crowns above the martyrs, counted thirty-⁠nine, declared himself a Christian and went into the water, so that the number should be whole. In the morning the martyrs' shins were broken, the bodies were burned, and the bones thrown into the water. After three days the martyrs appeared to Bishop Peter of Sebaste and asked him to bury their remains.

The Church commemorates the forty martyrs on 9 March in the old style, that is 22 March in the new style, in one of the best-⁠loved commemorations of the Great Fast.