Today is the feast of the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste. You can read their story here, but here is an excerpt:

(source)

It was winter, and there was a severe frost. They lined up the holy
soldiers, threw them into a lake near the city, and set a guard to
prevent them from coming out of the water. In order to break the will of
the martyrs, a warm bath-house was set up on the shore. During the
first hour of the night, when the cold had become unbearable, one of the
soldiers made a dash for the bath-house, but no sooner had he stepped
over the threshold, than he fell down dead.

During the third hour
of the night, the Lord sent consolation to the martyrs. Suddenly there
was light, the ice melted away, and the water in the lake became warm.
All the guards were asleep, except for Aglaius, who was keeping watch.
Looking at the lake he saw that a radiant crown had appeared over the
head of each martyr. Aglaius counted thirty-nine crowns and realized
that the soldier who fled had lost his crown.

Aglaius then woke up
the other guards, took off his uniform and said to them, “I too am a
Christian,” and he joined the martyrs. Standing in the water he prayed,
“Lord God, I believe in You, in Whom these soldiers believe. Add me to
their number, and make me worthy to suffer with Your servants.” Then a
fortieth crown appeared over his head.

Now, this was in the year 313. You might think that this sort of thing was common then, but not anymore. Well, think again:

(source)

  

 ISIS announced the execution of 21 Copts but only 20 names were
confirmed, most of them were from the province of Minya (Upper Egypt).
There was an inaccuracy in the number of Egyptian Hostages; there were
only 20 Egyptians (Copts). Then who was this remaining one non-Coptic
victim?

 Ahram-Canadian News was able to gather information about this man. He
was a Chadian Citizen (Darker skin shown in picture) who accepted
Christianity after seeing the immense faith of his fellow Coptic
Christians to die for Christ. When Terrorist forced him to reject Jesus
Christ as God, looking at his Christian friends he replied, “their God
is my God“ so the terrorist beheaded him also.

Through the prayers of all the martyrs, both old and new, may God give us the strength to persevere in our faith!