Leontius of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Leontius of Sebaste is one of the forty martyrs of Sebaste in Armenia, Christian soldiers from Cappadocia who suffered for Christ around the year 320. The Azbyka page honours them all together and says nothing particular about him.

After Constantine the Great had issued in 313 the law of freedom of faith, which the co-⁠emperor Licinius had also signed, the persecution went on in Licinius's lands. At Sebaste in Armenia the commander Agricolaus wished to force the forty Christian soldiers from Cappadocia to sacrifice to idols. They refused. In winter they were led bound to a nearby lake and set stripped on the ice, and on the shore a warm bath was prepared as a temptation: whoever wished to save his life had only to say he had renounced Christ. All night the soldiers endured the frost, singing hymns. One of them ran to the bath and fell dead. The jailer Aglaius saw a heavenly light over the others, confessed himself a Christian and joined them. In the morning their shins were broken, they were thrown into the fire, and the half-⁠burned bones were cast into the river; Bishop Peter of Sebaste, to whom the martyrs appeared after three days, gathered their bones and buried them with honour.

The names of the forty have been preserved: Kyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Ilian, Sisinius, Angias, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Domitian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, Meliton and Aglaius. Their commemoration falls on 9 March in the old style, which is 22 March in the new style, a day on which the strictness of Great Lent is eased and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.