The governor of Sebaste in Armenia wished to force forty soldiers to renouce Christ. First he imprisoned them and then he threw them into a frozen pond. They prayed with one heart.

"We forty have entered the arena, O Lord, grant that we may be able to receive the crown,”

One of them escaped and renounced Christ, but their guard, a pagan, took his place. In the morning the guards broke their legs and burned their bodies. They received the crown of martyrdom around the year 322. May their prayers be with us. Amen.

Synaxarion for March 9, The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Maronite Prayer of the Faithful.