Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
Polyeleos. Kept with the Polyeleos at Matins.
Commemorated today
- The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia (Sebaste) (320)Martyr · d. 320
What is known
A martyr died rather than deny Christ. The word is Greek for witness, and the Church uses it in that sense: the death is testimony, not merely a fate. Most of these deaths fall in the Roman persecutions before 313, though the title is not restricted to them.
The title places them at Sebastia. The year given is 320.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- St Caesarius (369)d. 369
What is known
The year given is 369.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
Appointed readings
- Isaiah 43:9–14
- Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9
- Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3 continues in 6
- Luke 21:12–19
- Hebrews 12:1–10
- Matthew 20:1–16
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on March 9 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on March 22 by the civil calendar. The movable cycle, which turns on the date of Pascha and changes every year, is on the calendar page. Where a life has been written on this site the name links to it; where it has not, only what the commemoration itself attests is shown, and nothing is added to it.