Meliton of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Meliton of Sebaste was the youngest of the forty martyrs of Sebaste in Armenia, Christian soldiers from Cappadocia who suffered around the year 320. In 313 the emperor Constantine the Great had issued the law of freedom of faith, which Licinius also signed, but in the lands under his rule the persecution continued. Licinius was preparing for war with Constantine and, fearing treason, wished to purge the army of Christians.

The commander Agricolaus forced the forty to sacrifice to idols, and they refused. They were put in chains, held in prison and tried by the official Lysias, who ordered them to be struck with stones, but the stones flew past them, and the stone Lysias threw struck Agricolaus in the face. On a winter night they were stripped and led onto the ice of a lake nearby. A bath had been heated on the shore to tempt anyone who weakened. One of the soldiers could not endure it and ran to the bath, but hardly had he stepped in when he fell dead. At the third hour of the night the Lord gave the martyrs comfort: a light shone, the ice melted and the water grew warm. The guard Aglaius, the only one awake, saw over the head of each a shining crown. He counted thirty-⁠nine and understood that the one who had fled had lost his crown. He threw off his clothes, cried that he was a Christian and joined the martyrs.

The next day, seeing them alive, the tormentors took them out of the water and broke their shins. During this torture the mother of the youngest, Meliton, urged him not to be afraid and to endure to the end. The bodies were laid on carts to be burned. Meliton was still breathing and had been left on the ground, but his mother lifted him and carried him on her shoulders behind the cart. When he gave up his spirit she laid him beside the bodies of his companions. The bodies were burned and the bones thrown into the water, so that the Christians could not gather them. After three days the martyrs appeared in a dream to the blessed Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, and commanded him to bury their remains, which he did by night, with honour.

The commemoration of the forty is a much honoured feast; on 9 March in the old style (22 March in the new) the strictness of the fast is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated. Meliton is commemorated on 22 March, in the new style.