Marcel George Gherga: "I will number you with the saints' chorus in my place of rest:" The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and the Old Testament martyrs in Ephraem Graecus' Encomium in XL Martyres

Already during the fourth century, the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste were celebrated through a widespread cult in Christian East, with several footholds in the West. As a consequence of their cultic importance, the hagiographical literature dedicated to them is well-represented. The martyrs' virtues have been extolled in seven Greek hagiographical texts from the fourth century: the Passio (BHG 1201, 171-181), Testamentum (BHG 1203, 171-181), an homily by Basil the Great (PG 31, 508-525), three by Gregory of Nyssa (GNO X, 1/2), and one by Ephraem Graecus (BHG 1204). My doctoral research seeks to offer a synthetic overview of their cult and the texts it generated. It will assess the function of these texts in constructing Christian identity through the means of literary genre, Scriptural quotations and rhetoric, and the way they were contextualized in different times and regions. The documents have been studied extensively, with the exception of Ephraem Graecus’ homily, which poses questions regarding the relation with the previous texts, especially the dependence to the homilies of the Cappadocian Fathers. In my paper I intend to offer a close reading, focusing on the way the text chooses to forward the theme of the unity of the group of martyrs in the face of persecution. I will argue that Ephraem Graecus used the unity theme for a specific purpose: whereas the Cappadocian Fathers wanted to instill to the audience the need for a unitary Church, Ephraem Graecus saw it as a fulfillment and surpassing of Old Testament martyr examples.