 The Rt Rev Jack L Iker, SSC, Bishop The Rev Mark A Stockstill, SSC, Vicar Office 325.356.2997 Vicarage 325.356.2198 Cell 325.330.2411 mastockstill@yahoo.com |
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In the year
320, Constantine was Emperor of the West and Licinius of the East. Licinius,
under pressure from Constantine, had agreed to legalize Christianity in his
territory, and the two made an alliance (cemented by the marriage of
Licinius to Constantia the sister of Constantine), but now Licinius broke
the alliance and made a new attempt to suppress Christianity. He ordered his
soldiers to repudiate it on pain of death. In the "Thundering Legion,"
stationed near Sebaste in Armenia (now Sivas in Turkey), forty soldiers
refused, and when promises, threats, and beatings failed to shake them, they
were stripped naked one evening and herded onto the middle of a frozen lake,
and told, "You may come ashore when you are ready to deny your faith." To
tempt them, fires were built on shore, with warm baths, blankets, clothing,
and hot food and drink close by. As night deepened, thirty-nine men stood
firm, while one broke and ran to the shore. However, one of the soldiers
standing guard on shore was so moved by the steadfastness of the Christians
that he stripped off his clothes and ran out to join them. They welcomed him
into their company, and so the number of the martyrs remained at forty, and
by morning, all were dead of exposure. (One source says that the few in whom
a little life remained were stabbed to death at dawn.)