Valens of Sebaste

Holy Martyr Valens of Sebaste is one of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste in Armenia. In 313 the emperor Constantine the Great signed the edict of freedom of faith. His co-⁠emperor Licinius signed it too, but in the lands he ruled the persecution of Christians continued. About the year 320, in the city of Sebaste in Armenia, a Roman army was stationed, in which there were forty Christian soldiers from Cappadocia. The commander Agricolaus forced them to sacrifice to the idols, but they refused. The soldiers were arrested and led bound to a lake near the city. It was winter and evening was falling. They were stood naked on the frozen lake. The terrible frost gripped the martyrs' limbs and they began to freeze. The torment was made harder by a warm bath set on the shore as a temptation: whoever wished to save his life had only to tell the prison guard that he had renounced Christ, and he could go into the warmth. All night the soldiers bore the bitter cold courageously, encouraging one another and singing sacred hymns to God.

Early in the morning one of them could bear it no longer, left the lake and hurried to the bath, but as soon as the warm air touched his body he fell dead. Soon the prison guard, Aglaius, saw an unearthly light shining above the martyrs who remained in the lake. He was so shaken by the miracle that he declared himself a Christian, took off his clothes and joined the thirty-⁠nine. The tormentors, who came a little later, saw that the soldiers had not only not frozen but seemed even to have warmed. Then they broke their shins with hammers and threw them into the fire, and afterward threw the charred bones into the river. After three days the martyrs appeared to Bishop Peter of Sebaste and told him of their struggle. The bishop gathered the bones and buried them with honour.

The memory of the Forty Martyrs is among the most venerated feasts, and on their day, 9 March (old style, 22 March new style), the strictness of the Great Fast is relaxed and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated. Saint Valens is numbered in the list of the forty, with Cyrion, Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius and the others.