When it is said
The Slavonic Menaion gives it at Vespers on 9 March, after the Song of Simeon, as a second troparion of the feast.
Anyone can pray it at home, asking the Forty Martyrs to pray for them.
Where it comes from
No author known
Forty soldiers at Sebaste
About AD 320 the pagan emperor Licinius set out to rid his army of Christians. At Sebaste in Armenia, 40 soldiers refused to sacrifice to the gods and were put in prison. The Church’s account of their trial gives their answer, “Take not only our military insignia, but also our lives, since nothing is more precious to us than Christ God.”
The 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste, Orthodox Church in America; Wikipedia, “Forty Martyrs of Sebaste”
The night on the lake
As the Church tells it, the 40 soldiers were put into a lake near Sebaste on a night of hard frost, with a warm bath-house on the shore for anyone who gave in. One man ran for it and fell dead on the threshold. The guard Aglaius saw a crown over each of the rest and counted only 39. He threw off his uniform, said “I too am a Christian,” and joined them. Then a fortieth crown appeared over his head.
Through fire and water
In the morning the soldiers were still alive, and their legs were broken. The mother of the youngest, Meliton, begged him to hold firm. When the dead were put on a cart to be burned, Meliton was left on the ground still breathing. His mother carried him on her shoulders behind the cart and laid him with the others when he died. The Church sings that the 40 went “through fire and water” (Psalm 66:12) into the kingdom of heaven.
The 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste, Orthodox Church in America; The Greek Menaion for 9 March, a hymn of Cyprian the Monk (in Greek)
The Scripture in it
You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us into abundance.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Church Slavonic
Страстоте́рпцы всечестни́и,
во́ини Христо́вы четы́редесяте,
тве́рдии ору́жницы,
сквозе́ бо о́гнь и во́ду проидо́сте
и А́нгелом согра́ждане бы́сте,
с ни́миже моли́теся Христу́ о и́же ве́рою хва́лящих вас
Сла́ва Да́вшему вам кре́пость,
сла́ва Венча́вшему вас,
сла́ва Подава́ющему ва́ми всем исцеле́ния.