Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church marks on March 9 the Day of Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste. The day commemorates the victory of Tsar Ivan Asen II over Theodore Komnin of Epirus on March 9, 1230 near the village of Klokotnitsa. Later, Ivan Asen II built the popular Holy Forty Martyrs church in the capital city of Veliko Tarnovo which is still functioning. On March 9 the church also honors the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste who were a group of Roman soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata who died for the Chritian faith. They were killed near the city of Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia. The Forty Holy Martyrs were victims of the persecutions of Licinius who persecuted the Christians of the East.