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While that may seem like a dramatic and distant story of inspiring, ancient courage, we can draw some similarities from that story to the things that are happening in today’s culture.
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They have come to be known as the forty martyrs of Sebaste. Their martyred bodies were burned and thrown into the river, but Christians recovered the relics. Aglaius the guard stripped off his clothes and armor and entered the lake with the remaining thirty-nine. As one of the forty gave in and exited the lake to surrender, the temperature change proved too great a shock and he died.īut the forty were not to be denied their crowns. Grant that forty may receive crowns of glory.” And as they prayed, one of the guards in charge of holding them, Aglaius, claimed to see crowns appear above their heads. But they stayed strong, singing and praying, “Lord we are forty engaged in this contest. He surrounded the lake with hot food, blankets, and great fires to coax the men into surrendering. One company of 40 Christians refused because that would have been a “betrayal of the faith.”Īs it was the middle of winter, the governor ordered them to be stripped and marched into the middle of the lake. In 320 A.D., a legion of soldiers was commanded to offer pagan worship to the emperor as a show of loyalty. However, his co-ruler did not make the same judgment for the Eastern half. In the 4 th century, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, allowing all to practice their faith openly.