He was born in Persia. His father, Vav, was a magician and a teacher of sorcery. Serving as a warrior under the Persian king Khosrow, Anastasius heard about the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, about the glory and power of which many spoke. The grace of God touched his heart, and he began to seek the truth.
During the war in Greece, he remained with a Persian Christian who instructed him in the true faith. Having received Baptism in Jerusalem, he entered a monastery, where he labored in humility and work. After seven years in the monastery, it was revealed to him that a martyr's death awaited him for Christ.
In Caesarea, Saint Anastasius was captured by soldiers and, confessing himself to be a Christian, was condemned and sent to work in the stone quarries. He was subjected to cruel tortures along with 70 prisoners, who were suffocated on the riverbank. The saint's head was cut off and brought to the king, while his body was thrown to the dogs, but none of them touched it. A monk from the Jerusalem monastery, where the saint had labored, buried the martyr by bribing the guard. The martyr's death occurred in 628.
