St. Victor of Marseille
Name: St. Victor of Marseille
Date: 21 July
The Emperor Maximian, reeking with the blood of the Theban legion and that of many othermartyrs, arrived in person in the year 290 at Marseilles, where the Church flourished. The tyrantwas breathing nothing but slaughter and fury, and his coming filled the Christians with fear andalarm. In the general consternation, Victor, a Christian officer in the emperor’s troops, wentabout in the nighttime from house to house, visiting the faithful and inspiring them with contemptfor temporal death and love of eternal life. He was arrested during these charitable offices and brought before the tribunal of the prefects Asterius and Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of his imperial service and thefavor of his prince for the worship of a dead man. He answered that he renounced temporalrewards, if he could not enjoy them without being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son ofGod, who had vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, and who after dying raised Himselffrom the dead, to reign perpetually with the Father, being God equally with Him. The entire courtreceived this witness with shouts of rage; and Victor was bound hand and foot and draggedthrough the streets of the city, exposed to the blows and insults of the populace. He was brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal of the prefects, who, thinking hisresolution must have been weakened by his sufferings, pressed him again to adore their gods. However, the martyr, filled with the Holy Spirit, expressed his respect for the emperor but hiscontempt for the debauched gods. Saint Victor was hoisted on the rack and tortured a long time,until the tormentors grew weary and the prefect ordered him to be taken down and thrown into adark dungeon. At midnight God visited him by His Angels. The prison was filled with a lightbrighter than that of the sun, and the martyr sang with Angels the praises of God. Three soldierswho guarded the prison, seeing this light, cast themselves at the martyr’s feet, asked his pardon,and expressed their desire for baptism. Victor instructed them as well as time would permit, andsent for a priest the same night. The five of them went to the seashore, and the three convertswere baptized, then all returned to the prison. The next morning, when Maximian was informed of the conversion of the guards, in a transportof rage he sent officers to bring all four confessors before him. The three soldiers persevered inthe confession of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor’s orders were beheaded. Victor, set beforealmost the entire city for a final questioning, after having been exposed to its insults, was againplaced on the rack, scourged, and carried back to prison, where he remained for three more days,recommending to God his martyrdom with many tears. After that term the emperor called himbefore his tribunal, and commanded the martyr to offer incense to a statue of Jupiter. Victor wentup to the profane altar, and with a kick of his foot overthrew it. The emperor ordered his foot tobe chopped off. The Saint suffered this mutilation with great joy, offering to God these first-fruitsof his body. His barbaric tormentor condemned him to be put under the grindstone of a hand-milland crushed to death. The executioners turned the wheel, and when part of his body was bruisedand crushed, the mill broke down. The Saint still breathed a little; an order was given to beheadhim at once. His body with those of the other three heroes of Christ, Alexander, Felician andLonginus, were thrown into the sea, but cast ashore on the opposite bank by a current. Theywere buried by the Christians in a grotto hewn out of the rock. Very great miracles were wroughtat Saint Victor’s tomb or by his intercession, including the resurrection of a girl in her coffin,which occurred beside her open grave. |
