Tag Archives: spring

40 Martyrs of Sebaste

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The feast of the Forty Martyrs falls on March 9. There is an intentional play on the number forty being both the number of martyrs and the days in the fast. Because the celebration of the 40 Martyrs falls during Great Lent, the endurance of the martyrs serves as an example to the faithful to persevere to the end (i.e. throughout the forty days of the fast) in order to attain heavenly reward (participation in the Resurrection).

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata (“Armed with Lightning”) whose martyrdom in AD 320 for the Christian faith is recounted in traditional collections of records of the martyrs.

They were killed near the city of Sebaste, in a region known as Lesser Armenia (the present-day Sivas region of Turkey), victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who after AD 316, persecuted the Christians of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. The earliest account of their martyrdom is given by St. Basil the Great (AD 370–379) in a homily he delivered on their feast day (March 9). The celebration of the Forty Martyrs is thus older than Basil himself, who preached about them only fifty or sixty years after their deaths.

According to St. Basil, forty soldiers who had openly admitted that they were all Christians were condemned by the prefect and sentenced to be exposed naked upon a frozen lake near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night so that they would freeze to death unless they renounced their Christian faith; if they renounced their faith, they would be welcome to warm themselves in the hot baths on the lakeshore. One of the soldiers yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake which but one of the guards who was set to keep watch over the martyrs saw a brilliant light surrounding the naked soldiers on the lake and he stripped off his clothes and announced that he was now a Christian. He joined the remaining thirty-nine and so the number of forty remained complete. (The soldier who denied his faith was killed, however, by the shock of the warm water after being so cold out on the ice. The icon above shows the apostate soldier entering the bathhouse while the newly-converted guard strips off his clothes to join the other 39 soldiers out on the ice.)

At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned and the ashes cast into a river. Christians, however, collected the precious remains, and the relics were distributed throughout many cities; in this way, veneration of the Forty Martyrs became widespread, and numerous churches were erected in their honor.

There is a pious custom of baking “skylarks” (pastries shaped like skylarks) on this day, because people believed that birds sing at this time to announce the arrival of spring

“Happy New Year 2019?!” Annunciation Day

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A Coptic icon of the Annunciation, showing the angel Gabriel presenting a lily as he announces the Incarnation to the Mother of God.

A Coptic icon of the Annunciation, showing the angel Gabriel presenting a lily as he announces the Incarnation to the Mother of God.

Lilies are often associated with the celebration of Annunciation. When Eve was driven from Paradise, lilies bloomed wherever her tears fell onto the earth and Gabriel presented lilies to the Virgin Mary when he announced that her Son would re-open Paradise to mankind. Other legends say that lilies blossomed from drops of milk from Hera’s breasts that fell upon the earth and that the lily was therefore the only flower with a soul. Lilies are traditionally considered to drive away ghosts and evil (esp. the Evil Eye) and can break love spells. The first lily of the season strengthens whoever finds it.

Roses are also associated with Annunciation and are used to cast love spells or in healing magic. If you plant roses in your garden, they are said to grow best if you have stolen the seeds from someone else and will then attract the faerie folk.

The Annunciation is celebrated on March 25 (the traditional date of the springtime equinox). Not only was Annunciation — and the equinox — vital to keeping track of time for secular purposes, many ancient and medieval authors claimed that the Annunciation/equinox date were vital at many points of salvation history: the birthday of Adam and the Crucifixion were said to have occurred on March 25 as well. Some also said that March 25 marked the fall of Lucifer, the parting of the Red Sea, as well as the day on which God said, “Let there be light!”

Sometimes called “Lady Day,” the Annunciation was kept as New Year’s Day in many places; the last to give up Annunciation as the New Year’s Day was England and its American colonies in 1752. The correct synchronization of the equinox with the Annunciation is a critical element in the calculation of the date of Easter and the medieval and Renaissance disconnect between the Annunciation and the equinox prompted Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar in 1582.

“Happy New Year?!” Lady Day 2018

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A Coptic icon of the Annunciation, showing the angel Gabriel presenting a lily as he announces the Incarnation to the Mother of God.

A Coptic icon of the Annunciation, showing the angel Gabriel presenting a lily as he announces the Incarnation to the Mother of God.

Lilies are often associated with the celebration of Annunciation. When Eve was driven from Paradise, lilies bloomed wherever her tears fell onto the earth and Gabriel presented lilies to the Virgin Mary when he announced that her Son would re-open Paradise to mankind. Other legends say that lilies blossomed from drops of milk from Hera’s breasts that fell upon the earth and that the lily was therefore the only flower with a soul. Lilies are traditionally considered to drive away ghosts and evil (esp. the Evil Eye) and can break love spells. The first lily of the season strengthens whoever finds it.

Roses are also associated with Annunciation and are used to cast love spells or in healing magic. If you plant roses in your garden, they are said to grow best if you have stolen the seeds from someone else and will then attract the faerie folk.

The Annunciation is celebrated on March 25 (the traditional date of the springtime equinox). Not only was Annunciation — and the equinox — vital to keeping track of time for secular purposes, many ancient and medieval authors claimed that the Annunciation/equinox date were vital at many points of salvation history: the birthday of Adam and the Crucifixion were said to have occurred on March 25 as well. Some also said that March 25 marked the fall of Lucifer, the parting of the Red Sea, as well as the day on which God said, “Let there be light!”

Sometimes called “Lady Day,” the Annunciation was kept as New Year’s Day in many places; the last to give up Annunciation as the New Year’s Day was England and its American colonies in 1752. The correct synchronization of the equinox with the Annunciation is a critical element in the calculation of the date of Easter and the medieval and Renaissance disconnect between the Annunciation and the equinox prompted Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar in 1582.