March 9/22
		
		All of them were soldiers in the Roman army and steadfastly
		believed in the Lord Jesus.When the persecution of 
		Christians began during the reign of Licinius, they were 
		brought to trial before the commander. When he threatened 
		to strip them of their honar as soldiers, one of them St. 
		Candidus, responded, "Not only the honor of being a 
		soldier, but take away our bodies, for nothing is more dear
		or honorable to us than Christ our God." After that, the 
		commander ordered his servants to stone the holy martyrs. 
		While the servants were hurling stones at the Christians, 
		the stones turned and fell back on the servants, severely 
		striking them. One of the stones struck the commander's 
		face and knocked out his teeth. The tortures, angry as wild
		beasts, bound all of the holy martyrs and tossed them into 
		the lake and stationed a guard around it so as to prevent 
		any of them from escaping. There was a terrible frost and 
		the lake froze around the bodies of the martyrs. 
		So that their pain and suffering would be worsened, and in 
		order to persuade one of them to deny Christ and 
		acknowledge the idols of Rome, the tortures heated a bath 
		by the side of the lake in sight of the frozen martyrs. 
		Indeed, one of them was persuaded. He came out of the water
		and entered the bath. And behold, an extraordinary light 
		appeared from heaven which warmed the water in the lake and
		the bodies of the martyrs. With that light, thirty-nine 
		wreaths descended from heaven over their heads. Upon seeing
		this, a guard on the shore  removed all his clothes, 
		confessed the Name of the Lord Jesus and entered the lake 
		so that he could become worthy of the fortieth wreath in 
		place of the betrayer. Indeed, the last wreath descended 
		upon him. The next day the entire town was astonished when 
		they saw that the martyrs were still alive. Then, the 
		wicked judges ordered that the lower part of their legs be 
		broken and their bodies thrown into the water so Christians 
		could not recover them. On the third day the martyrs 
		appeared to Peter, the local bishop, and summoned him to 
		gather their relics and remove them from the water. The 
		bishop with his clergy went our into the dark of night and 
		beheld the relics of the martyrs shining brightly in the 
		water. Every bone which was separated from their bodies 
		floated to the top and glowed like a candle. Bishop Peter 
		gathered and honorable buried them. The souls of these 
		martyrs, who suffered for all of us, went to the Lord Jesus,
		resurrected with glory. They suffered honorably and were 
		crowned with unfading glory in the year 320 A.D.
		
		
		
		Conceal your spiritual treasures and do not reveal them 
		unnecessarily. Behold, how men conceal and hide their 
		material wealth and how, when forced to reveal how much 
		they have, they always conceal the greater amount and only 
		reveal the lesser amount. Very few are the number of men 
		who want to reveal all that they possess, and fewer still 
		are those who would reveal more than they, in reality, 
		possess. This, the world considers frivolous and mindless. 
		This clearly shows you how you need to conceal your 
		spiritual wealth, that is, your virtues, your good works, 
		your fasting, your vigils, and your prayers. Why do not the
		wise children of this world reveal their material wealth? 
		For two reasons: So that thieves would not hear of it and 
		not to provoke the envy of evil men. There also exist 
		envious and jealous thieves after spiritual treasure. They
		are the spirits of ency. As soon as you reveal your 
		spiritual treasure, they will endeavor to belittle it and 
		to squander it and disparaged it; and you, O rich man of 
		spiritual treasure, will imperceptibly and suddenly become 
		a poor man. Many who were spiritually rich, the saints, 
		made themselves out to be fools before the world so that 
		by appearing foolish, they conceal their great wisdom and 
		strength within themselves. The abba Isaiah writes, "Those
		good works which are performed in secret are more pleasing 
		to God." St. Nilus of Sinai says, "The covered skin of the 
		body is white, but the uncovered skin is parched and black." 
		So it is with our concealed and revealed good works.