The governor of Sebaste in Armenia wished to force forty soldiers to renounce Christ. First he imprisoned them and then he threw them into a frozen pool. They prayed with one heart: "We forty have entered an arena, O Lord, grant that we may be able to receive the crown." One of them escaped and renounced Christ, but their guard, a pagan, took his place. In the morning the guards broke their legs and burned their bodies. They received the crown of matyrdom approximately the year 322.