The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/Katharevousa Greek Ἃγιοι Τεσσεράκοντα, Demotic Άγιοι Σαράντα) were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata (Armed with Lightning) whose martyrdom in 320 for the Christian faith is recounted in traditional martyrologies.
They were killed near the city of Sebaste (present-day Sivas in Turkey), in Lesser Armenia, victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who after 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their existence and martyrdom is given by bishop Basil of Caesarea (370–379) in a homily delivered on the feast of the Forty Martyrs. The feast is consequently more ancient than the episcopate of Basil, whose eulogy on them was pronounced only fifty or sixty years after martyrdom.
Read more about Forty Martyrs Of Sebaste: Account of Martyrdom, Early Veneration, A Recurring Theme in Orthodox Art, Veneration in The East, Veneration in The West, The Names of The Forty Martyrs
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“‘I’m sorry that I spelt the word:
I hate to go above you,
Because’Mthe brown eyes lower fell—
‘Because, you see, I love you!’
Still memory to a grey-haired man
That sweet child-face is showing.
Dear girl! the grasses on her grave
Have forty years been growing.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
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—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)