Martyrs Elias, Probos and Ares in Cilicia

Elias, Probus and Ares were Egyptian Christians who, about 308, in the persecution of Maximinus Daia, set out to help fellow Christians condemned to the mines of Cilicia. The historian Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived through these years, tells that they were arrested at the gates of Ascalon, on the coast of Palestine, together with others traveling with them. Some of the group were blinded or maimed and sent on to the mines; Ares was burned alive, and Probus and Elias were beheaded.