Theodulus of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Theodulus of Sebaste is remembered among the forty martyrs who died for Christ in Sebaste of Armenia, around the year 320. They were Christian soldiers from Cappadocia, and the Church honours them together on one of the best loved commemorations of Great Lent.

Persecution

In 313 the emperor Constantine the Great had issued the law of freedom of faith, which Licinius, who ruled the eastern part, had also signed. In his lands, however, the persecution of Christians went on. The commander Agricolaus, a zealous pagan, tried to force the forty soldiers to sacrifice to the idols, and they refused. He shut them in prison, where they gave themselves to prayer and heard a voice telling them that whoever endures to the end will be saved.

The next day Agricolaus tried first praise for their courage and youth, and then chains. The eldest of them, Kyrion, answered that the emperor had not given him the right to put them in irons, and the commander ordered them taken back to the prison without chains. After seven days the high official Lysias came to the city and judged them. The saints replied that he might take not only their rank but also their lives, for nothing was dearer to them than Christ. Lysias commanded that they be stoned, but the stones missed their mark, and the one he threw himself struck Agricolaus in the face. That night in prison the voice of the Lord comforted them again, bidding them be bold and promising them unfading crowns.

The frozen lake

It was winter and the frost was hard. The soldiers were stripped and led to a lake near the city, where they were left on the ice all night under guard. On the shore a bath had been heated to tempt them: whoever wished to save his life could go in. One of them could endure no longer, ran to the bath and fell dead on its threshold. In the night the ice melted, the water grew warm and a light filled the lake. Of the guards only Aglaius was awake. Seeing a shining crown above the head of each martyr, he counted thirty-⁠nine and understood that the one who had fled had lost his crown. He cast off his clothes, confessed that he was a Christian and joined the saints in the water, praying to be counted worthy to suffer with them.

In the morning their persecutors found them alive and broke the bones of their legs. The mother of the youngest, Meliton, urged her son to bear it to the end. The bodies were laid on wagons to be burned, and Meliton, who was still breathing, was left on the ground. His mother lifted him onto her shoulders and followed the wagon, and when he gave up his spirit she laid him beside the others. The bodies were burned, and the charred bones were 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 told him to bury their remains. The bishop, with a few clerics, gathered the remains by night and laid them in the earth with honour.

Veneration

Besides Theodulus, the list keeps the names of all forty: Kyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinnius, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Domitian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctemon, Severian, Hudion, Meliton and Aglaius. About Theodulus himself the page says nothing in particular. Their commemoration is among the most honoured of the year; on that day the strictness of the fast is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served. It falls on 9 March in the old style, which is 22 March in the new.