"O Champions of Christ, you make the all-sacred fast even more joyous..."

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (source)

  
O Choir of flames four-times-ten, army wholly chosen by God, you make Lent shine furthermore because of your sacred struggles, sanctifying and enlightening our souls.
  
The forty-numbered Choir of Martyrs, who would not hymn? For they entered into the waters of the lake bravely, being clenched by the cold, and offered up an ode to the Lord: "Do not let waters drown us in your anger, O Lord, do not let your waters drown us in your anger, O Lover of mankind, but lighten the burden and the bitter wind, for You dyed our feet in Your very own blood, and you have led us, O God, into your eternal mansions, that we might have rest in the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham."
  
You watered the faithful with the chalice of truth, filled with your own blood, and with the fire of tortures, and the drowning of water. O Four Decades of the Lord, you chanted to the Savior, though separate in bodies, but united in spirit, and you offered yourselves to Christ, while the Mother and bride of God offered her Christ-loving child, who was carried on her shoulders, saying: Come, O Champion, and struggle together with the rest.
  
O Champions of Christ, you make the all-sacred fast even more joyous through your glorious struggles, for you were Forty in number, and you sanctify the Forty-day Lent, imitating the saving passion through your struggle on behalf of Christ. Therefore, as ones having boldness, intercede that in peace we might meet the Third-day Resurrection of our God and the Savior of our souls.
-Idiomela and Doxastikon from the Matins for the Feast of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
  
(source)
  

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!