2025
Articles

The role of Saint Meliton’s mother in the martyrdom of the XL Martyrs of Sebaste (4th Century)

PDF (Spanish)
  • Laura Carbó
Laura Carbó
Universidad Nacional Mar del Plata, Argentina

Published 2025-06-25

Keywords

  • XL Martyrs,
  • Fourth Century,
  • Fathers of the Church,
  • Saints Mother

How to Cite

Carbó, L. (2025). The role of Saint Meliton’s mother in the martyrdom of the XL Martyrs of Sebaste (4th Century). Conocimiento Y Acción. https://doi.org/10.21555/cya.2025.3325

Abstract

In this article we propose to analyse the case of the XL Martyrs of Sebaste (†320) and the attitude of Meliton’s mother, who encourages the youngest of the forty condemned, to continue the torture and to die with his comrades. She takes him on her back to the cart that carries the lying bodies of the martyrs to the pyre where they would be cremated. The hypothesis is that this mother, like the Virgin Mary, like the mother of the Maccabees in the Old Testament, accepts her son´s sacrifice and engages herself in body and soul to execute a purpose beyond her understanding. Her acceptance is orientated to the redemption of humanity, and with this decision, she recognizes that her social or communitarian purpose is above any particular interest. The primary sources considered to establish this feminine intervention in the sequence of the martyrdom are the Homily of St. Basil (P.G. XXXI) and the two Homilies of his brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa (P.G. XLVI), based on the Passio XL
Martyrium (BHG 1201) of the 4th century. We will mention iconographic sources that show the presence of Meliton’s mother: a painting from the Chapel of the XL Martyrs in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (9th c.?); an illumination from Vincent de Beauvais’ Speculum Historiale (French translation Miroir Historial by Jean de Vignay, ca. 1459-1463); and a tempera on wood from the School of Aleppo (1637). The study of the artistic representations of martyrdom is fundamental for understanding this hagiographic passage that prioritizes maternal protagonism in the ultimate experience of the saint.

PDF (Spanish)

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