Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste · §2 · Basil of Caesarea

The Forty's bold confession before the ruler

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Basil has just described the martyrs' common spiritual lineage and now turns to narrate how these forty soldiers, summoned before the ruler, publicly declared themselves Christians despite threats and temptations.

For their common Father is God, and they are all brothers—not born from one man and one woman, but fitted together into unity of mind with one another through the adoption of the Spirit and through love. They are a company made ready, a great addition to those who from eternity have glorified the Lord, not gathered one by one, but removed all at once. And what was the manner of their removal? These men, who excelled all their contemporaries in bodily size, in the prime of life, and in strength, were enrolled in the military registers. Because of their experience in war and their courage of soul, they already held the first honors from the emperors, and were famous among all for their virtue. But when that godless and impious proclamation was announced—that they must not confess Christ, or else face dangers—every kind of punishment was threatened, and great and beastly fury was stirred up by the judges of injustice against the devout. Plots and deceits were stitched together against them, and varied forms of torture were devised. The torturers were relentless: fire was made ready, the sword was sharpened, the cross was planted, the pit, the wheel, the whips. Some fled, some bowed down, some were shaken. Some, before the test, were terrified by the threat alone. Others, when they came near the horrors, grew dizzy. Still others entered the contests, but then, unable to endure to the end of their labors, gave up somewhere around the middle of the contest. Like men storm-tossed on the open sea, they shipwrecked even the cargo of endurance they already carried. Then these men—the unconquered and noble soldiers of Christ—came forward into the midst. The ruler displayed the emperor's letters and demanded obedience, but with a free voice, boldly and courageously, shrinking from nothing they saw and terrified by nothing threatened, they proclaimed themselves Christians. O blessed tongues, how many uttered that sacred sound! The air received it and was sanctified; the angels heard it and applauded; the devil and his demons were wounded; and the Lord recorded it in heaven. So each one came forward into the midst and said, "I am a Christian." And just as in the stadiums those who pass by for a contest speak their names and then move to the place of struggle, so these men then cast away the names given them at birth and each one announced himself by the name of the common Savior. And they all did this, each one joining himself to the one who had gone before. So there came to be one name for all of them: no longer "so-and-so" or "so-and-so," but all were proclaimed Christians. What then did the ruler do? He was clever and versatile, seeking to win them over at one moment with flattery and at another to turn them aside with threats. First he bewitched them with flattery, trying to slacken the tension of their devotion. "Do not betray your youth," he said, "and do not exchange this sweet life for an untimely death. It is absurd for men accustomed to excelling in wars to die the death of criminals." In addition to this he promised money. He offered honors from the emperor, distributions of offices, and out-generaled them with countless schemes. But when they did not yield to this attempt, he moved on to the other kind of device.

Greek

Κοινὸς γὰρ αὐτῶν πατὴρ ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἀδελφοὶ πάντες, οὐκ ἀπὸ ἑνὸς καὶ μιᾶς γεννηθέντες, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς υἱοθεσίας τοῦ Πνεύματος εἰς τὴν διὰ τῆς ἀγάπης ὁμόνοιαν ἀλλήλοις συναρμοσθέντες. Χορὸς ἕτοιμος, προσθήκη μεγάλη τῶν ἀπ' αἰῶνος δοξαζόντων τὸν Κύριον, οὐ καθ' ἕνα συναθροισθέντες, ἀλλ' ἀθρόως μετατεθέντες. Τίς δὲ ὁ τρόπος τῆς μεταθέσεως; Οὗτοι, μεγέθει σώματος, καὶ ἡλικίας ἀκμῇ, καὶ δυνάμει τῶν καθ' ἑαυτοὺς ἁπάντων διενεγκόντες, εἰς τοὺς στρατιωτικοὺς τελεῖν ἐτάχθησαν καταλόγους· καὶ δι' ἐμ πειρίαν πολεμικὴν, καὶ ἀνδρείαν ψυχῆς, ἤδη τὰς πρώτας εἶχον παρὰ βασιλέων τιμὰς, ὀνομα στοὶ παρὰ πᾶσιν ὄντες δι' ἀρετήν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ περιηγγέλη τὸ ἄθεον ἐκεῖνο καὶ ἀσε βὲς κήρυγμα, μὴ ὁμολογεῖν τὸν Χριστὸν, ἢ κινδύνους ἐκδέχεσθαι· ἠπειλεῖτο δὲ πᾶν εἶδος κολάσεως, καὶ πολὺς ὁ θυμὸς καὶ θηριώδης παρὰ τῶν κριτῶν τῆς ἀδικίας κατὰ τῶν εὐσεβούντων κεκίνητο· ἐπιβουλαὶ δὲ καὶ δόλοι κατ' αὐτῶν συνεῤῥάπτοντο, καὶ ποικίλα εἴδη βασάνων ἐπετηδεύετο, καὶ οἱ αἰκιζόμενοι ἀπαραίτητοι, τὸ πῦρ ἕτοιμον, τὸ ξίφος ἠκόνητο, ὁ σταυρὸς ἐπεπήγει· ὁ βόθρος, ὁ τροχὸς, αἱ μάστιγες· οἱ μὲν ἔφευγον, οἱ δὲ ὑπέκυπτον, οἱ δὲ ἐσαλεύοντο· τινὲς δὲ πρὸ τῆς πείρας μόνην τὴν ἀπειλὴν κατεπλάγησαν· ἕτεροι δὲ, ἐγγὺς γενόμενοι τῶν δεινῶν, ἰλιγγίασαν· ἄλλοι δὲ, τοῖς ἀγῶσιν ἐμβάντες, εἶτα διαρκέσαι πρὸς τὸ πέρας τῶν πόνων ἀδυνατήσαντες, περὶ τὰ μέσα που τῆς ἀθλήσεως ἀπειπόντες, ὥσπερ οἱ ἐν πελάγει χειμαζόμενοι, καὶ ἃ εἶχον ἤδη ἀγώγιμα τῆς ὑπομονῆς ἐναυάγησαν· τότε δὴ οὗτοι, οἱ ἀήττη τοι καὶ γενναῖοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ στρατιῶται, παρελθόν τες εἰς μέσους, ἐπιδεικνύντος τοῦ ἄρχοντος τὰ βασι λέως γράμματα καὶ τὴν ὑπακοὴν ἀπαιτοῦντος, ἐλευ θέρᾳ τῇ φωνῇ, εὐθαρσῶς καὶ ἀνδρείως, οὐδὲν ὑπο πτήξαντες τῶν ὁρωμένων, οὐδὲ καταπλαγέντες τὰ ἀπειλούμενα, Χριστιανοὺς ἑαυτοὺς ἀνεκήρυξαν. Ὦ μακάριαι γλῶσσαι, ὅσαι τὴν ἱερὰν ἐκείνην ἀφῆκαν φωνὴν, ἣν ἀὴρ μὲν δεξάμενος ἡγιάσθη, ἄγγελοι δὲ ἀκούσαντες ἐπεκρότησαν· διάβολος δὲ μετὰ δαι μόνων ἐτραυματίσθη· Κύριος δὲ ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπεγράψατο. Εἶπον τοίνυν ἕκαστος εἰς τὸ μέσον παριών· Χριστιανός εἰμι. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς σταδίοις οἱ ἐπ' ἄθλησιν παροδεύοντες ὁμοῦ τε λέγουσιν ἑαυτῶν τὰ ὀνόματα, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον τῆς ἀγωνίας μεθ ίστανται· οὕτω δὴ καὶ οὗτοι τότε, ῥίψαντες τὰς ἀπὸ γενέσεως αὐτοῖς ἐπιφημισθείσας προσηγορίας, ἀπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ Σωτῆρος ἕκαστος ἑαυτὸν ἀνηγόρευον. Καὶ τοῦτο ἐποίουν ἅπαντες, τῷ προλαβόντι ἑαυτὸν συνάπτων ὁ ἐφεξῆς. Ὥστε ἐγένετο πάντων προσηγορία μία· οὐκέτι γὰρ ὁ δεῖνα, ἢ ὁ δεῖνα, ἀλλὰ Χριστιανοὶ πάντες ἀνεκηρύττοντο. Τί οὖν ὁ κρατῶν τότε; Δεινὸς γὰρ ἦν καὶ ποικίλος, τὰ μὲν θωπείαις ὑπελθεῖν, τὰ δὲ ἀπειλαῖς παρατρέψαι. Πρῶτον μὲν αὐτοὺς κατεγοήτευε ταῖς θωπείαις, τὸν τόνον τῆς εὐσεβείας παραλύειν πειρώμενος. Μὴ προδῶτε ὑμῶν τὴν νεότητα· μηδὲ θάνατον ἄωρον τῆς ἡδείας ταύτης ζωῆς διαμείψητε. Ἄτοπον γὰρ τοὺς ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἀριστεύειν συνειθισμένους τὸν τῶν κακούργων θάνα τον ἀποθνήσκειν. Πρὸς τούτοις χρήματα ὑπισχνεῖτο. Τὰ δὲ ἐδίδου, τιμὰς ἐκ βασιλέως, καὶ ἀξιωμάτων διανομὰς, καὶ μυρίαις αὐτοὺς ἐπινοίαις κατεστρατήγει, Ὡς δὲ οὐκ ἐνεδίδοσαν πρὸς τὴν πεῖραν ταύ την, ἐπὶ τὸ ἕτερον εἶδος τῆς μηχανῆς μετῄει.

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About this text

Basil of Caesarea (c. 330–379) delivered this homily to the congregation assembled for the martyrs' feast on the commemoration of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste to honor their witness and move the gathered faithful to imitate their endurance.

Basil argues that honoring martyrs proves love for God and prepares the hearer for imitation. He presents the Forty as one soul in many bodies, soldiers of Christ who confessed boldly under threat, and narrates their trial by freezing in a lake, their mutual encouragement, the desertion of one man for the warm bath, and his replacement by the guard who saw heavenly rewards and confessed Christ. He closes by urging the congregation to seek the Forty as intercessors and models. The reader will meet the Forty, the hostile ruler who condemns them, the deserter, the guard, and the mother who placed her still living son on the cart to the pyre. The speech of the Forty and the speech of the mother are quoted directly, while the tempting words of the ruler are reported indirectly and met by the confession of the Forty.

Here contest means the struggle of martyrdom, crown means the victor reward, confession means public confession of Christian faith, boldness means freedom of speech, company means the united band, and endurance means endurance under suffering. Whole burnt offering means total self offering, while devotion names the devotion for which the martyrs died. Basil uses Septuagint book names and Psalm numbering, so Psalm numbers differ from modern Hebrew numbering, while New Testament citations follow standard modern forms.

No published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne PG text (Aegean University Digital Patrology, via (Greek)
Also checked Migne PG 31, archive.org scan patrologiae_cursus_completus_gr_vol_031 (Greek machine-read text) (Greek · check (same print; machine-read text compared word by word))

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