From the Prologue of Ochrid
All of these were soldiers in the Roman army, yet they believed firmly in the Lord Jesus. When a persecution arose in the time of Licinius, they were brought to trial before a commander, who threatened to strip them of their military rank. To this one of them, the holy Candidus, replied: "Take not only our military rank but our bodies as well; nothing is dearer or more honorable to us than Christ our God." After this the commander ordered his servants to stone the holy martyrs. But when the servants cast stones at the Christians, the stones turned back and fell upon the servants themselves, striking them grievously. One stone fell upon the commander's face and shattered his teeth. The tormentors, fierce as wild beasts, bound the holy martyrs and threw them into a lake, and set a guard all around so that not one should come out. There was a terrible frost, and the lake was freezing around the bodies of the martyrs. To intensify the torments, the tormentors heated and illumined a bathhouse by the edge of the lake, in full sight of the freezing sufferers, in hopes of enticing some of them to renounce Christ and acknowledge the Roman idols. Indeed, one was enticed, came out of the water, and entered the bathhouse. But behold — at night an extraordinary light fell from heaven, which warmed the water in the lake and the bodies of the martyrs, and with that light thirty-nine crowns descended from heaven upon their heads. A guard on the shore saw this, stripped off his clothing, confessed the name of the Lord Jesus, and entered the lake, that he might be counted worthy of that fortieth crown in place of the traitor. And indeed that last crown descended upon him. The next day the whole city was astonished to see the martyrs still alive. Then the wicked judges ordered that their legs be broken, and their bodies cast into the water so that Christians could not take them. On the third day the martyrs appeared to the local bishop Peter and called upon him to gather their relics from the water. The bishop went out in the dark of night with his clergy, and they saw the martyrs' relics gleaming upon the water. And every bone that had been separated from their bodies floated to the surface and shone like a candle. They gathered them and buried them honorably. And the souls of these martyrs departed to the Lord Jesus, who suffered for all of us and rose again in glory. They suffered honorably and were crowned with imperishable glory in the year 320.
