The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

 

In 320 AD, 40 soldiers of the Roman army’s Legio XII Fulminata, garrisoned at Sebaste, in Armenia, were executed under the orders of the Emperor Licinius who ruled of the eastern part of the empire and and opposed the policy of Constantine who had freed Christianity.

The feast of these martyrs is also an appropriate occasion to pray for the civil power. We ask the intercession of the 40 martyrs for those who act to oppose the law permitting the killing of the unborn, and laws which contradict our nature which is affirmed in the book of Genesis “Male and female He created them”.

We also thank God for the gifts both of nature and grace that he gives us daily.

PICTURE CREDIT: Wikimedia. Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. Anagoria.

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