3/21/2023
Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi
Rating: 10|Votes: 6
What were they "suffering at present" from? They were tortured with whatever the devil threw at them, since he is always generating ways to prevent the devout from getting on with their business. He begins with minor internal or external annoyances and reaches even the highest of all evil, death.
Rating: 7.1|Votes: 7
On the following morning, the soldiers were again taken to Agricola. This time the pagan tried flattery. He began to praise their valor, their youth and strength, and once more he urged them to renounce Christ and thereby win themselves the respect and favor of their emperor.
Rating: 10|Votes: 9
According to the tradition about the Holy Forty Martyrs, as they were suffering in the freezing lake, they strengthened themselves and one another by saying “Winter is harsh, but paradise is sweet!” This captures the spirit and essence of Christian martyrdom, which always sees the experiences of this world in the light of the heavenly kingdom.
St. Gregory of Nyssa
Rating: 7.5|Votes: 4
I believe that persons who have undergone many harsh experiences can give us encouragement because the sufferings which they and others have endured are a source of special joy. A shepherd rejoices when he sees his abundant flock gathered together; although his pen is large, he expands it to accommodate a large number of sheep. Similarly, Peter saw a throng gathered about the Lord and exclaimed, Master, the crowd surrounds you and presses upon you (Lk. 8.45).
Rating: 8.2|Votes: 5
Too Incredible to Be True? Are we really supposed to believe that forty men in the prime of life voluntarily undressed to die by freezing? Is this just a legend? Actually, the story is as solid as ancient history gets.
Rating: 8.5|Votes: 11
During this time they prepared themselves for the trial of martyrdom. One of them, Cyrion by name, exhorted his fellow soldiers: "God so ordained that we made friends with each other in this temporary life; let us try not to separate even in eternity; just as we have been found plea sing to a mortal king, so let us strive to be worthy of the favor of the immortal King, Christ our God."
Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov)
Martyrdom is a sign of the chosen, a great gift, and divine mercy.
Andrei Gorbachev
The one who renounced Christ lost both this earthly life and eternal salvation, while the one who resolved to die for the Lord inherited eternal blessedness.
Fr. Lawrence Farley
We also live in a time of deadly winter, when multiplied wickedness causes men’s hearts to grow cold. The rulers of this age promise earthly reward to those who will abandon the truth, and a warm bathhouse stands ready to receive the apostates.
The “Will and Testament” of the Forty Martyrs—the Roman soldiers of the Eleventh Thundering Legion (Legio XII Fulminata) who suffered in 320 in the town of Sebaste (Lesser Armenia)—is an important historical document and memorial of early Christian hagiographic literature.
Archpriest Alexander Shargunov
Rating: 7.8|Votes: 19
From the very beginning, the Church saw in this image that which determines the life of every Christian and the life of the whole Church at all times. In one way or another, we find ourselves before this choice.
Rating: 9|Votes: 8
We would like to present to our readers a story of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov; 1893–1975) about how he one day nearly died from hunger in a Nazi prison.
St. Theodore the Studite
Rating: 5|Votes: 3
For the rest then, brethren, let us strive, let us struggle by the grace of Christ not to shame those things that have been previously mentioned: the banishments, the imprisonments, the scourgings. We may not all have been imprisoned, nor all scourged; but nevertheless the fellowship of life itself becomes a fellowship of sufferings, for if one limb suffers, all the limbs suffer with it; if one limb is glorified, all the limbs rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:26).
