Glory for the 41 Soldiers and Holy Heroes who in the 4th century before the Roman Empire gave it their all. They are:
The Forty-1 Martyrs of Sebaste
Roman soldiers first, and hosts of Christ after
With the first thing you pursue glory. With the latter, Divine Glory makes use of you
The situation was to honor to dead figures and preserve terrestrial life by losing the Soul, or to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be faithful to what they lived for years, and with martyrdom to preserve the Soul by losing earthly life
The capacity of Martyrdom is not a human capacity, but is a Divine Gift that God bestows at a given moment, and there, the Human Will and the Divine become ONE in the face of the tragic moment. And this is conditioned, not achieved by purely human effort. It is worth the example of St. Lawrence who, having suffered martyrdom lying on a grill, at full fire asks to be turned around. The Divine intervenes so that the forces/laws of Nature otherwise impact the human body
The testimony itself is that these men began to be tortured, and the last torture was in spending days and nights in an icy lake until the cold nullified the body heat
They encouraged each other with songs, from Psalms and surely also with songs by Soldiers. Apparently the younger one was encouraged to give up. And this animated by his Mother who contemplated and encouraged him persisted
The bravery of these men was of such Testimony that it touched all present
So he looked like one of the 40s gave up, and left the lake to a place reserved for those who wished not to continue
Then the guardian who was in charge of the 40s not fleeing, and who was also a Soldier, in a feeling of martial recognition, also declared himself a Christian and joined the group to preserve the whole. And probably as a newly converted soldier, knowing that that gesture would keep the Moral
But the one who gave up was because first he was, and the initial merit belongs to him and here he is not taken away, and this is the ONE that is mentioned
It's Another who gets to Judge
Therefore these are, and this is the story, of the Forty-1 Soldiers who gave Witness to Christ in Sebaste (Present Turkey)
In EWTN are all the details of this beautiful story:
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/forty-martyrs-of-sebaste-419
Amen!
References:
Catechism of the Catholic Church click here
523 St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way.196 "Prophet of the Most High", John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.197 He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the bridegroom", whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".198 Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah", John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.199
Wikipedia Image: De anonimus - http://web.mit.edu/ocf/www/icons.html The Orthodox Weekly Bulletin, Dominio público, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1596812
EWTN: https://www.ewtn.com/es
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