Hastein was a Viking chieftain, who, around 860, joined with Björn Ironside to lead an expedition to raid countries in the Mediterranean.

Believing it to be Rome, Hastein had his men carry him to the gate and tell the guards he was dying and wished to convert to Christianity.

In the place indicated by the legends, the church of San Ceccardo ad Acquas was built, at least as early as the 14th century, containing a small spring that sprang up where the first stream of blood of the martyr would have touched the ground (a similar legend is at the base of the Tre Fontane monastery in Rome).

This propaganda activity was part of a targeted action of pressure by the above mentioned canons, aimed at the recognition of the jurisdiction "nullius diocesis" of the church itself.

However, this doesn't take anything away from the strong devotion of the citizenship since the most remote times to San Ceccardo - to whom tradition attributes many miraculous interventions.