[Rank]
Ss. Quadraginta Martyrum;;Semiduplex;;2.1;;vide C3

[Rule]
vide C3;
9 lectiones;

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who know thy glorious Martyrs to~
have been in their testimony leal and true towards thee, may, now that they are~
with thee, feel them to be in their petitions pitiful towards us.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
While Licinius was Emperor and Agricolaus President, (in the year of our Lord~
320,) forty soldiers at Sebaste, a city of Armenia, gave a singular instance of~
faith in Jesus Christ, and bravery under suffering. After being often remanded~
to an horrid prison-house, bound in fetters, and their mouths bruised with~
stones, they were ordered out in the depth of winter, stripped naked, and put~
upon a frozen pool, to die of cold during the night. The prayer of them all was~
the same O Lord, forty of us have begun to run in the race, grant that all~
forty may receive the crown, let not one be wanting at the last. Behold, is it~
not an honourable number in thy sight, Who didst bless the fast of forty days,~
and at the end thy Divine Law came forth to the earth? When also Elias sought~
thee, Thou, O God, didst reveal thyself unto him when he had fasted for forty~
days. Even so was their petition.

[Lectio5]
When the keepers were all asleep and the watchman only was awake, he heard them~
praying and saw a light shining round about them, and Angels coming down from~
heaven, as the messengers of the King, bearing nine-and-thirty crowns, and~
distributing them to the soldiers. Then he said within himself: Are not forty~
here? Where is the crown of the fortieth? And as he looked he saw one of them~
whose courage could not bear the cold, come and leap into a warm bath that stood~
by; and the Saints were grievously afflicted. Nevertheless God suffered not that~
their prayer should return unto them void; for the watchman wondered, and called~
the keepers, and stripped himself of his clothes; and, when with a loud voice he~
had confessed himself a Christian, he joined the Martyrs. When the servants of~
the President knew that the watchman also was a Christian, they brake the legs~
of them all with staves.

[Lectio6]
Under this torment died they all, saving Melithon, who was the youngest. Now,~
his mother stood by, and when she saw that his legs were broken, but that he was~
yet alive, she cried, and said My son, have patience but a little longer.~
Behold how Christ standeth at the door to help thee. When she saw the bodies of~
all the others put upon carts and taken away to be burned, and that her son was~
left behind, because the multitude wickedly hoped that being but a lad, if he~
lived, he might yet be drawn to commit idolatry, the holy mother took him on her~
own shoulders and bravely followed behind the carts laden with the bodies of the~
Martyrs. In her arms Melithon gave up his soul to God, and the mother who loved~
him so well laid his body with her own hands upon the pile, with those of the~
other Martyrs, that, as they had all been one in faith and strength, in death~
they might not be divided, and might enter heaven together. After the burning,~
what remained of them was thrown into a running stream, but the ashes were all~
washed together into one place, and being found and rescued, they were laid in~
an honourable sepulchre.

[Lectio7]
@Commune/C3:Lectio71

[Lectio8]
@Commune/C3:Lectio81

[Lectio9]
@Commune/C3:Lectio91
