The Relics of the Forty Martyrs Found

A woman named Eusebia, a deaconess of the Macedonian sect, had a house and garden outside the walls of Constantinople. In it she kept the holy remains of forty soldiers who had suffered martyrdom under Licinius at Sebaste in Armenia. When she felt death approaching, she left the place to some orthodox monks. She bound them by oath to bury her there, to cut out a separate space above her head at the top of her coffin, to lay the relics of the martyrs there with her, and to tell no one. The monks did so. But in order to give the martyrs due honor in secret, as they had agreed with Eusebia, they made an underground house of prayer near her tomb. Above ground, in plain view, a building was put up over the foundation, walled with baked bricks, with a secret way down from it to the martyrs. Soon afterward Caesarius, one of the men in power, who had earlier been raised to the rank of consul and prefect, lost his wife and had her buried near the tomb of Eusebia. The two women had been bound together by the warmest friendship and had been of one mind on every question of doctrine and religion. So Caesarius was led to buy the place, so that he himself might be buried near his wife. The monks moved elsewhere without saying anything about the martyrs. After this the building was torn down, the earth and rubble were spread about, and the whole place was leveled, for Caesarius himself built a magnificent church there to God in honor of Thyrsus the martyr. [a]

It seems likely that God purposely willed that the place should disappear and that so long a time should pass, so that the finding of the martyrs might be thought all the more wonderful and striking, and a proof of God’s favor toward the one who found them. The one who found them was in fact none other than the empress Pulcheria, the emperor’s sister. The admirable Thyrsus appeared to her three times and showed her those who lay hidden under the earth. He commanded that they be laid near his own tomb, so that they might share the same place and honor. The forty martyrs themselves also appeared to her, clothed in shining robes. But the thing seemed too wonderful to be believed, and altogether impossible. The old men among the clergy of that district had made inquiries again and again and had not been able to point out where the martyrs lay, and neither had anyone else. At last, when everything seemed hopeless, Polychronius, a presbyter who had once been a servant in the household of Caesarius, was reminded by God that monks had once lived in that place. So he went to the clergy of the Macedonian sect to ask about them. All the monks were dead except one, who seemed to have been kept alive for the very purpose of pointing out the spot where the relics of the holy martyrs were hidden. Polychronius questioned him closely about it. Finding that his answers were somewhat hesitant because of the agreement made with Eusebia, he told him of the divine revelation, of the empress’s anxiety, and of how her efforts had failed. Then the monk admitted that God had told the empress the truth. When he was a big lad and was being taught the monastic life by its aged leaders, he remembered clearly that the relics of the martyrs had been laid near the tomb of Eusebia. But the time that had passed since then, and the changes made in that place, had taken from him the power to recall whether the relics had been laid beneath the church or in some other spot. Polychronius went on: “I have not suffered the same loss of memory. I remember that I was present at the burial of the wife of Caesarius, and as well as I can judge from where it lies in relation to the main road, I conclude that she must have been buried beneath the ambo.” The ambo is the platform for the readers. The monk added: “Then it is near the remains of the wife of Caesarius that the tomb of Eusebia must be looked for. The two women lived in the closest friendship and intimacy, and they agreed with each other to be buried side by side.”

When it was time to dig according to these clues and track down the sacred relics, and the empress had learned the facts, she ordered them to begin the work. When they dug up the earth by the ambo, they found the coffin of the wife of Caesarius, just as Polychronius had guessed. A short distance to the side they found the pavement of baked bricks, and a marble slab the same size as the bricks, under which the coffin of Eusebia came to light. Close by was a chapel, elegantly walled with white and purple marble. The lid of the tomb was shaped like a holy table, and at the top, where the relics had been laid, a small opening could be seen. A man from the palace who happened to be standing by pushed a cane he was holding into the opening. When he drew the cane out he held it to his nose and breathed in a sweet smell of myrrh, which gave the workmen and the onlookers fresh confidence. When they had eagerly opened the coffin, they found the remains of Eusebia. Near her head was the raised part of the tomb, made exactly in the shape of a chest and closed within by its own lid. The iron bands that held it on each side at the edges were firmly fastened with lead. In the middle the same opening appeared again, and showed still more clearly that the relics were hidden inside. As soon as the discovery was announced, they ran to the church of the martyr and sent for smiths to unfasten the iron bars, and they easily drew off the lid. Underneath they found a great quantity of perfumes, and among the perfumes two silver caskets in which the holy relics lay. Then the princess gave thanks to God for counting her worthy of so great a revelation and for letting her find the holy relics. After this she honored the martyrs with a most costly casket. At the close of a public festival, held with fitting honor and with a procession to the singing of psalms, at which I was present, the relics were laid beside the godlike Thyrsus. Others who were present can also bear witness that these things were done as I have described, for almost all of them are still alive. This event took place much later, when Proclus was governing the church of Constantinople.