Saint Anastasius of Persia (born with the name Magundat), once a member of the Zoroastrian Magi caste, became a convert of the Holy Cross and was martyred in 628. Anastasius was a soldier in the army of Khusrau II (d. 628) when that monarch carried the True Cross from Jerusalem to Sassanid Persia. The occasion prompted him to ask for information; then he left the army, became a Christian, and afterwards a monk in Jerusalem. His Persian name, Magundat, he changed to Anastasius. After seven years of the monastic observance, he was moved, as he thought, by the Holy Ghost to go in quest of martyrdom and went to Caesarea, then subject to the Persians.