diff --git a/textproc/saxon-he/Makefile b/textproc/saxon-he/Makefile
index a1e8773de518..0cf15bac7260 100644
--- a/textproc/saxon-he/Makefile
+++ b/textproc/saxon-he/Makefile
@@ -1,38 +1,45 @@
 PORTNAME=	saxon-he
-DISTVERSION=	12-6
+DISTVERSION=	12-8
 CATEGORIES=	textproc java
-MASTER_SITES=	https://github.com/${GH_ACCOUNT}/${GH_PROJECT}/releases/download/SaxonHE${DISTVERSION}/
+MASTER_SITES=	https://github.com/${GH_ACCOUNT}/${GH_PROJECT}/releases/download/SaxonHE-${DISTVERSION}/
 DISTNAME=	SaxonHE${DISTVERSION}J
 
 MAINTAINER=	thierry@FreeBSD.org
 COMMENT=	XSLT 3.0 / XPath 3.1 / XQuery 3.1 processor for Java
 WWW=		https://www.saxonica.com/
 
 LICENSE=	MPL20
 LICENSE_FILE=	${WRKSRC}/notices/LICENSE.txt
 
 #USE_GITHUB=	yes
 GH_ACCOUNT=	Saxonica
 GH_PROJECT=	Saxon-HE
 
 USES=		java zip
 
 NO_WRKSUBDIR=	yes
 NO_ARCH=	yes
 NO_BUILD=	yes
 
+_XMLRESOLVER_VER=5.3.3
 JARFILES=	${JARFILES1} ${JARFILES2}
 JARFILES1=	saxon-he-${PORTVERSION}.jar \
 		saxon-he-test-${PORTVERSION}.jar \
 		saxon-he-xqj-${PORTVERSION}.jar
 JARFILES2=	jline-2.14.6.jar \
-		xmlresolver-5.3.1.jar \
-		xmlresolver-5.3.1-data.jar
+		xmlresolver-${_XMLRESOLVER_VER}.jar \
+		xmlresolver-${_XMLRESOLVER_VER}-data.jar
 PLIST_FILES=	${JARFILES:S,^,%%JAVAJARDIR%%/,}
 
 do-install:
 	@${MKDIR} ${STAGEDIR}${JAVAJARDIR}
 	${INSTALL_DATA} ${JARFILES1:S,^,${WRKSRC}/,} ${STAGEDIR}${JAVAJARDIR}
 	${INSTALL_DATA} ${JARFILES2:S,^,${WRKSRC}/lib/,} ${STAGEDIR}${JAVAJARDIR}
 
+post-stage:
+# smoke test so we're sure we can load all required classes
+# (12.0 and 12.6 didn't work with OpenJDK 8)
+	${JAVA} -cp '${STAGEDIR}${JAVAJARDIR}/*' net.sf.saxon.Transform -? 2>&1 \
+		| ${HEAD} -n1
+
 .include <bsd.port.mk>
diff --git a/textproc/saxon-he/distinfo b/textproc/saxon-he/distinfo
index 038367d9de9b..88406974656b 100644
--- a/textproc/saxon-he/distinfo
+++ b/textproc/saxon-he/distinfo
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-TIMESTAMP = 1746715463
-SHA256 (SaxonHE12-6J.zip) = cbb6657da061c155476ad9e43a3564a4cc928d4951ebeed2eafe5a0aa74e2aee
-SIZE (SaxonHE12-6J.zip) = 7248220
+TIMESTAMP = 1752488672
+SHA256 (SaxonHE12-8J.zip) = 2ba851aec7925b882208182c48c936230205d558e335636bbe46626bd8003598
+SIZE (SaxonHE12-8J.zip) = 7208886