За имената на св. 40 мъченици от Севастия и тяхната предпазна сила
The names of the forty martyrs of Sebasteia and the protective power attributed to them in South Slavic tradition

Summary/Abstract: The article explores various little-known extra-liturgical ways of using the names of the Forty martyrs of Sebasteia – one of the most popular and powerful Christian saints in the Middle Ages in the Balkans, and emphasizes their function as protectors, patron saints, personal guardians. The information is extracted from various sources – the inscription from Temnić (dating from the end of the 10th–beginning of the 11th century), containing 10 of the names of the saints, whose original purpose is uncertain; the evidence in Byzantine chroniclers about the usage of the names of some of these martyrs into the Kavkhan family; a fragment of the initial layer of the decoration in the church “The Holy Forty Martyrs” in Tărnovo, containing large initial letters (possibly of the names of its patron saints); lists of the names of the Forty martyrs copied in amulet books from the 17th–18th centuries, read by local priests or by the believers against evil spirits, illnesses and misfortunes.

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