Theophilus of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Theophilus of Sebaste is one of the forty martyrs who suffered for Christ near the city of Sebaste in Armenia, around the year 320. The Church remembers them together on a day of very special honour, when in Great Lent the fast is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.

The emperor Constantine had given in 313 the law of freedom of faith, which Licinius also signed, but in the lands of the latter the persecution continued. In the city of Sebaste there was a Roman army, in which forty Christian soldiers from Cappadocia served. The commander Agricolaus pressed them to sacrifice to the idols, and they refused. In prison they heard a voice that strengthened them, and at the trial, before the official Lysias, they said that he could take their rank and their lives but not Christ. The stones thrown at them turned aside from their mark, and one struck Agricolaus.

In winter the soldiers were stripped and led out onto a frozen lake, and on the shore a warm bath was made ready for whoever would deny the faith. One came out and died in the bath. A guard, Aglaius, saw a heavenly light and a crown over each martyr; moved by the wonder, he declared himself a Christian and went into the lake to take the place of the fallen one. In the morning the persecutors found the martyrs still alive, broke the bones of their legs, burned the bodies and threw the bones into the river. After three days the martyrs appeared to Bishop Peter of Sebaste, who gathered their remains and buried them with honour.

The name of Theophilus is found in the list of the forty, beside Kyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinnius, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Domitian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctemon, Severian, Hudion, Meliton and Aglaius. Of him in particular nothing is said. The saints are commemorated on 9 March in the old style, which is 22 March in the new.