The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

“History knows them as the forty martyrs of Sebaste. They were soldiers in the imperial army, One day the Emperor Licinius sent down an edict commanding all soldiers to offer a sacrifice to his pagan god. Forty of the soldiers were followers of Christ, and they refused. “The emperor in the middle of winter marched them onto a frozen lake and stripped them of their clothes. ’Renounce your God and you will be spared from death,’ he told them. Not one man came forward. So he left them there, huddled together to contemplate his offer. When morning came, thirty-nine of the men had frozen to death. One survivor finally recanted his confession in order to live. The officer in charge that night had been so moved by the scene that during his watch he’d come to Jesus, so he broke rank and walked out onto the ice. Stripping his clothes he openly confessed his faith in Christ. The furious emperor demanded that he renounce Jesus, but he refused. When the ordeal was over, the Roman soldiers carried forty frozen men off of the ice.” (Source Unknown)