Martyr
Martyr Dometian of Sebaste
†320
Martyr Dometian of Sebaste — one of the forty soldier-martyrs who suffered for confessing Christ in Sebaste of Armenia in 320: by order of the ruler Agricolaus, the soldiers were stripped and left overnight on the ice of a lake, and by morning, when nearly all had frozen to death, their bodies were burned and their bones thrown into a river.
Martyr Dometian was one of forty Roman soldiers serving in Sebaste of Armenia (Lesser Armenia) who openly confessed the Christian faith. In 320, during the persecution of Christians, the ruler of the province, Agricolaus, unable to persuade the soldiers to renounce Christ either by persuasion or threats, sentenced all forty to a cruel execution: they were stripped naked and left overnight on the ice of a lake in bitter frost, while on the shore a heated bathhouse was set up as a temptation. One of the forty could not endure it and, running to the bathhouse, died instantly from the change in temperature, but his place in the ranks was voluntarily taken by the guard soldier Aglaius, who came to believe in Christ upon seeing crowns descending upon the martyrs. In the morning, when nearly all the soldiers had already died from the cold, the survivors were killed, and all the bodies were burned on a pyre, with the bones thrown into a river to prevent their veneration by Christians. Dometian was among this company of forty martyrs. His memory is kept on March 9/22.