**THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTIA** – They are commemorated in the Greek and Latin Martyrologies on 9 March; their cult spread rapidly in the Church, and their relics were venerated in many places.
Their martyrdom is attested by several documents of varying historical value, sufficiently reliable to reconstruct the glorious episode with truth. These include discourses by St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Ephrem, an ancient *Passio* certainly not contemporary, which was translated into various languages, and the Testament written by the martyrs themselves in prison shortly before their execution. All these documents, while substantially agreeing, present differences in detail, yet not such as to invalidate their authority. The discourses, though echoing written and oral traditions that may go back to the time of the martyrdom of the Forty, bear the stamp of the orators’ rhetorical style; the *Passio* has all the defects common to this genre of writing; only the Testament is certainly genuine and above all suspicion.
During the persecution of Licinius, forty Christian soldiers, probably belonging to the Twelfth Legion, the Fulminata, were arrested at Sebaste and given the choice of apostasy or capital punishment. Since all remained steadfast in the faith, they were condemned to be exposed naked during a bitterly cold night in the courtyard of a gymnasium. One alone faltered in the trial, asking to be taken to the warm baths nearby, but his place was immediately taken by the gaoler, who suddenly converted. At dawn the bodies, frozen stiff, were burned and their ashes scattered in the nearby river; a church was later built on the site of the martyrdom. Even at Rome an extremely ancient oratory dedicated to the Forty was erected in the Forum near Santa Maria Antiqua, uncovered during excavations in
1901. This oratory, founded in an ancient building of the 2nd or 3rd century, was decorated between the 7th and 8th centuries with frescoes depicting the martyrs of Sebaste: most beautiful is the apse painting with the great scene of the martyrs
See pl. XI.Apostolo Amore
**MOUNT QUARANTANA** – View of Mount Quarantana from the modern city of Jericho – Palestine.
Here is recalled the memory of the fast and the temptations of Our Lord (Lk 4:1-8; Mt 4:1-4). The tradition, verifiable from the 4th century in the account of Egeria (q.v.) summarized by St Valerius (7th c.), has come to localize the fast and the first temptation, that of the loaves, in a cave on a steep slope halfway up the mountain, serving as shelter from night damp and daytime heat and even from wild beasts; the third temptation, that of worship, is placed on the summit, from which a wide panorama is enjoyed.
Most probably the summit bore the Maccabean fortress of Dok (1 Macc 16:14-16; Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Iudaicae*, XIII, 8, 1 and *Bellum Iudaicum*, I, 2, 3), of which traces of the rampart and architectural remains can still be seen today. The fortress gave its name to the lunar station established by St Chariton in the 4th century, flourishing in the Byzantine period and then much reduced down to the present day. The cave commemorating the first temptation was already painted in medieval times, but today, still adapted to worship, it has been entirely renewed. As for the church on the summit, work began in 1914 but has remained suspended since the outbreak of the First World War.
The mountain, entirely arid and barren, well conveys the idea of the Lord’s fast.