¹ Vasiliki M. Limberis, Architects of piety: the Cappadocian Fathers and the cult of the martyrs, Oxford–New York 2011, 48; Kirsti Gulowsen, ‘The genesis of the martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia as iconographical theme’, in Ecclesiae urbis: atti del congresso internazionale di studi sulle chiese di Roma, Vatican City 2002, 1868–71; Estelle Cronnier, Les Inventions de reliques dans l’Empire romain d’Orient (IVe – VIeͤ s.), Turnhout 2015, 156.

² Pierre Maraval, ‘Les Premiers Développements du culte des XL Martyrs de Sébastée dans l’Orient byzantin et en Occident’, Vetera Christianorum xxxvi (1999), 209; cf. A. Amore, who lists the places where the cult of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste spread in the fourth and fifth centuries: ‘Sebastia, XL martiri di’, Bibliotheca Sanctorum xi (1968), 770.

³ Dźwigała, Katarzyna M., ‘Death of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste’, Saeculum christianum xxix/1 (2022), 22 Google Scholar; Patricia Karlin-Hayter, ‘Passio of the XL martyrs of Sebasteia: the Greek tradition: the earliest account (BHG 1201)’, Analecta Bollandiana cix (1991), 273–4.

⁴ For discussion of the listed sources see Dźwigała, ‘Death of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste’, 21–30; Karlin-Hayter, ‘Passio of the XL martyrs of Sebasteia’, 249–304; Raymond Van Dam, Becoming Christian: the conversion of Roman Cappadocia, Philadelphia, Pa 2003, 132–50; Maraval, ‘Les Premiers Développements du culte’, 193–209; Matthew J. Recla, ‘Tessarakonta: the birth and growth of a martyrdom cult’, unpubl. PhD diss. Boise State 2006; Franchi de’Cavalieri, ‘I santi quaranta martiri di Sebastia’, in Note agiografiche, vii, Vatican City 1928, 155–84; Limberis, Architects of piety, 48–9; Ekkehard Mühlenberg, ‘Gregor von Nyssa über die Vierzig und den ersten Märtyrer (Stephanus)’, in P. Gemeinhardt and J. Leemans (eds), Christian martyrdom in late antiquity (300–450 ad ): history and discourse, tradition and religious identity, Berlin–Boston 2012, 116–30; Buckle, D. P., ‘The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste: a study of hagiographic development’, Bulletin of John Rylands Library vi (1921), 352–6010.7227/BJRL.6.3.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Efthymios Rizos, Cult of saints, at <http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00255>, accessed 29 February 2024; and Cronnier, Les Inventions de reliques dans l’Empire romain d’Orient (IVeͤ –VIeͤ s.), 152–6.

⁵ Herbert Musurillo, The acts of the Christian martyrs, Oxford 1972, 354–61; cf. Hans R. Seeliger and Wolfgang Wischmeyer, Märtyrerliteratur: Herausgegeben, übersetzt, kommentiert, Berlin–München–Boston 2015, 291–301.

⁶ According to Leemans, it is very rare, but not unprecedented, since there is the Passio Perpetuae and the Martyrium Pionii: ‘Individualization and the cult of the martyrs: examples from Asia Minor in the fourth century’, in Jörg Rüpke (ed.), The individual in the religions of the ancient Mediterranean, Oxford 2013, 189.

⁷ T. D. Barnes, Early Christian hagiography and Roman history, Tübingen 2010, 151.

⁸ de’Cavalieri, ‘I santi quaranta martiri di Sebastia’, 173–4.

⁹ Leemans, ‘Individualization and the cult of the martyrs’, 189–90.

¹⁰ Karlin-Hayter, ‘Passio of the XL martyrs of Sebasteia’, 289.

¹¹ Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, p. xlix.

¹² Basilius Caesariensis, In quadraginta martyres Sebastenses, PG xxxi.508–25.

¹³ Gregorius Nyssenus, In quadraginta martyres Sebastenses, II: Gregorii Nysseni Sermones, ed. G. Heil, J. P. Cavarnos and O. Lendle, pt ii, Leiden–New York–København–Köln 1990, 157–69.

¹⁴ Oscar von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta: Ausgewählte Märtyreracten und andere Urkunden aus der Verfolgungszeit der christlichen Kirche, Berlin 1902, 171–81.

¹⁵ Gaudentius Brixiensis, Sermo XVII, PL xx.959–71.

¹⁶ Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica, IX/2: Sozomène, Histoire ecclésiastique: livres VII–IX, ed. J. Bidez and G. C. Hansen, trans. A.-J. Festugière and B. Grillet, Paris 2008.

¹⁷ J. Leemans, W. Mayer, P. Allen and B. Dehandshutter, ‘Let us die that we may live’: Greek homilies on Christian martyrs from Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria (c. AD 350–AD 450), London 2003, 67.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Basilius, In sanctos XL martyres 8, PG xxxi.508–26. On the subject of the unity of the Forty Martyrs in death see F. Vinel, ‘Sainteté anonyme, sainteté collective? Les quarante martyrs de Sébastée dans quelques textes du ive siècle’, in Gérard Freyburger and Laurent Pernot (eds), Du Héros païen au saint chrétien, Paris 1997, 129–31.

²⁰ Van Dam, Becoming Christian, 141 n. 17.

²¹ Gregorius Nyssenus, In quadraginta martyres Sebastenses II 784M. I am grateful to Marta Przyszychowska, who has translated this homily into Polish (forthcoming).

²² Cf. H. G. Liddell and R. Scott (eds), A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford 1996, 1169.

²³ A. Kazhdan, B. Baldwin and N. P. Ševčenko, Gregory of Nyssa, in A. P. Kazhdan, A.-M. Talbot, A. Cutler and others (eds), Oxford dictionary of Byzantium, New York–Oxford 1991, i. 882.

²⁴ ‘τὴν δὲ κόνιν ἐκείνην καὶ τῆς καμίνου τὰ λείψανα ἐμερισάμεθα, καὶ πᾶσα γῆ σχεδὸν τοῖς ἁγιάσμασι τούτοις εὐλογεῖται’: Gregorius Nyssenus, In XL martyres II, 166.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta, 171–81.

²⁷ Cf. Dźwigała, ‘Death of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste’, 24.

²⁸ Cf. Ibid. 25; Karlin-Hayter, ‘Passio of the XL martyrs of Sebasteia’, 267.

²⁹ PL xx.965–6.

³⁰ A. Glück, Gaudentius of Brescia, in O. Nicholson (ed.), The Oxford dictionary of late antiquity, Oxford–New York 2018, 642.

³¹ Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica ix.2.

³² This happened between 434 and 443 ce: Sozomène, Histoire ecclésiastique: livres VII–IX, 388 n. 1.

³³ Greek ὁμολογητής. The term referred to Christians who suffered for their faith during persecutions: G. W. H. Lampe (ed.), A patristic Greek lexicon, Oxford 1961, 957.

³⁴ ‘τὸν προκείμενον ἡμῖν ἀγῶνα τελέσωμεν’: Testament i.1, p. 354. Cf. Hebrews xii.1. For an English translation of the Testament see Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 355–61.

³⁵ ‘ἐπὶ τὰ βραβεῖα τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως φθάσωμεν’: Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 354. Cf. Philippians 3.14.

³⁶ ‘ὑπὸ τὴν πόλιν Ζήλων ἐν τῷ χωρίῳ Σαρεῖμ’: Testament i.1, p. 354. Musurillo believes that the difficulty in identifying these locations speaks in favour of the Testament’s authenticity: Acts of the Christian martyrs, pp. xlix–l. Sareim has been identified as a town east of Zela: W. Ruge, Sarein, in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 1A, pt 2, Stuttgart 1920, 2497. Zelon (today’s Zile in Turkey) was one of the cities in Helenopontus: Rizos, Cult of saints, at <http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00255>; Seeliger and Wischmeyer, Märtyrerliteratur, 302; cf. Pierre Maraval, ‘Sarim-les-Zèla’, in Lieux saints et pèlerinages d’orient: histoire et géographie des origines a la conquête arabe, Paris 1985, 378. The city of Zelon was probably located about 130 km to the north-west of Sebaste.

³⁷ ‘εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐκ διαφόρων χωρίων τυγχάνομεν πάντες’: Testament i.1, p. 354.

³⁸ ‘ταῦτα οὖν καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι ἔδοξεν, καὶ ἡμῖν ἤρεσεν’: ibid. Cf. Acts xv.28.

³⁹ Testament i.2, p. 354.

⁴⁰ ‘ἔτι δὲ ἀξιοῦμεν πάντας μηδένα τῶν ἐκ τῆς καμίνου ἀνελομένων λειψάνων ἡμῶν ἓν ἑαυτῷ περιποιήσασθαι’: ibid. i, pp. 354–6.

⁴¹ In the Passio of these martyrs, there is information that their bodies were burned after death: Passio, ch. xii; von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta, 180.

⁴² Testament i.4, p. 356.

⁴³ ‘ὁ παῖς Εὐνοϊκός’: ibid. 356. According to Rizos, Eunoikos is the same person who is called Meliton in the Passio – the young martyr who is still alive in the morning but dies in his mother’s arms: Cult of saints, <http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00255>. This explanation is not convincing, since there are no arguments to identify them with each other, especially if what de’Cavalieri wrote about Eunoikos is taken into account.

⁴⁴ Testament i.5, p. 356.

⁴⁵ de’Cavalieri, ‘I santi quaranta martiri di Sebastia’, 174–5.

⁴⁶ ‘μετ’ ἐλευθερίας’: Testament i.5, p. 356.

⁴⁷ Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 357.

⁴⁸ ‘Ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὴν ἀδικίαν μισεῖ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν’: Testament i.6, p. 356; cf. Psalm x.5 (according to the Septuagint): Septuagint, ed. Alfred Rahlfs and Robert Hanhart, ii, Stuttgart 2006, 9.

⁴⁹ Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, l.

⁵⁰ ‘ἀδελφὲ Κρισπῖνε’: Testament ii.1, p. 356.

⁵¹ Ibid. ii.358.

⁵² For analysis of family relations on the basis of names and geographical names in the Testament see Seeliger and Wischmeyer, Märtyrerliteratur, 302–3.

⁵³ Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 359 nn. 15–16.

⁵⁴ ‘ἐν Ξιμάροις’: Testament iii.3, p. 360; Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 361 n. 17.

⁵⁵ ‘προσαγορεύομεν τοίνυν πάντες ἡμεῖς οἱ τεσσαράκοντα ἀδελφοὶ καὶ συνδέσμιοι πάντες’: Testament iii.4, p. 360.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ A similar statement can be found in Musurillo, Acts of the Christian martyrs, 1.

⁵⁸ Testament i.5, p. 356.

⁵⁹ Wortley, John, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, Revue de l’histoire des religions i (2006), 12 Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae 22.11.8–10, ed. John C. Rolfe, ii, Cambridge–London 1986, 260–2; cf. Robert Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, Oxford– New York 2019, 24.

⁶¹ Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 12; Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 25.

⁶² Passio, ch. xii: Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta, 180.

⁶³ Gregory of Nyssa, In XL martyres II, 166; cf. Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 175.

⁶⁴ Cf. Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 11–12; Arnold Angenendt, Heilige und Reliquien: die Geschichte ihres Kultes vom frühen Christentum bis zu Gegenwart, München 1994, 149.

⁶⁵ Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 11–12; cf. Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 6–7; Limberis, Architects of piety, 18.

⁶⁶ Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 21–6.

⁶⁷ J. H. M. Strubbe, ‘Cursed be he that moves my bones’, in Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (eds), Magika hiera: ancient Greek magic and religion, New York–Oxford 1991, 33–59.

⁶⁸ Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 21–2.

⁶⁹ Ibid. 22–6.

⁷⁰ Ibid. 22; John Wortley, ‘The earliest relic-importations to Constantinople’, in PECIA: Ressources en médiévistique 8–11, Saint-Denis 2005, 211–12.

⁷¹ Wortley, ‘The earliest relic importations’, 209.

⁷² Athanasius, Epistula paschalis 41: Atanasio di Alessandria, Lettere festali, ed. Alberto Camplani, Milan 2003, 527–37.

⁷³ Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 23 n. 47.

⁷⁴ Athanasius, Vita Antonii: G. J. M. Bartelink, Athanase d’Alexandrie, vie d’Antoine, Paris 1994, 124–377.

⁷⁵ Ibid. 364–6; cf. Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 17.

⁷⁶ Athanasius, Epistula paschalis 41, pp. 533–4; cf. Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 16–27.

⁷⁷ Wortley, ‘The origins of Christian veneration of body-parts’, 26–7.

⁷⁸ Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 165–6.

⁷⁹ Ibid. 166–71.

⁸⁰ Wortley, ‘The earliest relic-importations to Constantinople’, 210.

⁸¹ Basilius, In sanctos XL martyres 8; cf. Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 175.

⁸² Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 88–9.

⁸³ ‘τὴν δὲ κόνιν ἐκείνην καὶ τῆς καμίνου τὰ λείψανα ἐμερισάμεθα’: Gregorius Nyssenus, In XL martyres II, 166.

⁸⁴ Cf. Leemans, Individualization and the cult of the martyrs, 190.

⁸⁵ Basilius Caesariensis, Epistula XLIX: Saint Basil: The letters, ed. J. Deferrari, i, London–New York 1926, 318.

⁸⁶ Wiśniewski, The beginnings of the cult of relics, 27–47.