Under the Emperor Licinius, in 320, forty soldiers of the garrison of Sebaste in Armenia refused to sacrifice to idols and were put to death out of hatred for Christ. The judge ordered the saints to be exposed, naked on the ice of a frozen pond. In order to tempt them to renounce their faith, a warm bath was prepared at a small distance for any of this company to go to. The martyrs, on hearing their sentence, ran joyfully to the place and without waiting to be stripped, undressed themselves, encouraging one another in the same manner as is usual among soldiers in military expeditions saying that one bad night would purchase them a happy eternity. Their joint prayer: “Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that we may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred number.”