ON ST. VICTOR,
Martyr at Braga in Portugal.
PrefaceVictor, Martyr, at Braga in Portugal (St.)
G. H.
Braga, the most celebrated city of ancient Gallaecia, now included in the kingdom of Portugal, among other illustrious saints proposes on this day Saint Victor the Martyr: whose feast is celebrated with great solemnity on this April 12 in the Metropolitan Church of Braga, A celebrated Cult, and in other dioceses of the same kingdom, as our witness is Ambrosio de Morales in Book 10 of the General Chronicle of Spain, chapter 14. In the Breviary according to the rule of Blessed Isidore, called the Mozarabic, printed at Toledo in the year 1502 by order of Archbishop Francisco Ximenes, as also in a similar Missal printed in the year 1500, the Office of Saint Victor is prescribed for this day with nine Lessons, into which is distributed the compendium of the Acts of the Passion in the ancient Breviaries of Braga, Acts of the Martyrdom, of Évora, of Compostela, and in the monastic one according to the custom of the Benedictine Order in the kingdom of Portugal: which we subjoin here as transcribed. An illustrious epitome, taken thence, was published in Latin by Thomas de Trujillo in the second volume of the Thesaurus Concionatorum; in Spanish by Juan de Marieta in Book 2 of the History of the Saints of Spain, chapter 40, and by the above-cited Ambrosio de Morales: but more fully in Portuguese by Diogo do Rosário in his History of the Lives of the Saints. With all these the Roman Martyrology brightly agrees, elogium from the Roman Martyrology. in which is read the following elogium: "At Braga in Lusitania, Saint Victor the Martyr, who, still a catechumen, when he had refused to adore an idol, and had confessed Jesus Christ with great constancy; after many torments, his head cut off, merited to be baptized in his own blood."
[2] At what time or in what persecution Victor suffered, is not held in the Acts. Ambrosio de Morales opens his tenth book from the persecution set in motion by the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, Whether he suffered in the persecution of Diocletian? with Dacianus having been sent to carry it out in Spain; and after other illustrious athletes then crowned with martyrdom, he joins Saint Victor: whom also Diogo do Rosário asserts to have performed the triumph of martyrdom under the said Emperors and the aforementioned Dacianus. João Vaseu in his Chronicle of Spain defers the atrocious persecution of these Emperors, which was begun in the year of Christ 303, to the year 306, and thinks that in it the passion of Saint Victor at Braga Augusta occurred, whether he had 4 companions in martyrdom? and joins the holy Martyrs Silvester, Cucufas, Susanna, Torquatus, and other Martyrs whose memory has grown obsolete by length of time and lack of writers. Following him, Garibay in the first volume of the Compendium of Spanish Histories, Book 7, chapter 44, and Francisco Padilla in volume 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Spain, century 4, chapter 19, hands down that the holy Martyrs Victor, Silvester, Cucufas, Torquatus, and Susanna suffered together at Braga on April 12; with Saint Victor's martyrdom reported, he adds that to those already reported by Vaseu and Garibay four others are added who suffered martyrdom at Braga: but he was unable to find another author who attributes the said Martyrs to the city of Braga. Meanwhile many have followed them, and Luís dos Anjos, in the Viridarium of Portugal, chapter 5, relates that under Nero there suffered at Braga Saints Victor, Silvester, Torquatus, Cucufas, and the glorious Saint Susanna, sister of the last two, namely Torquatus and Cucufas. Others, entering a different path, inscribed these things in the Chronicle of Dexter under the year 300, no. 4: "At Braga in Lusitania, Saint Silvester suffered for Christ." Bivarius in the Kalendar subjoined has these things: "April 12, Saint Silvester, Martyr of Braga, with Susanna his sister." On the contrary, in the Chronicle of Dexter under the said year 300, no. 8, these things are read: "In the territory of Braga, Saint Susanna, Virgin and Martyr, having suffered for the faith, at least Susanna his sister? sister of Saint Victor the catechumen Martyr." Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology treats first of Saint Victor, then of Saint Susanna, asserting that whoever has written about Saint Victor her brother treats also of her, with none excepted: although according to the testimony of Padilla no one can be found who has written about her and the other matters reported above before Vaseu. Certainly those who have been reported by us in no. 1 treat only of Saint Victor. The same do Juan Mariana in Book 4 of the Spanish History, chapter 14; Juan Basilio Santorio, in the Lives of the Saints; Manuel Campos, in the Epigrams to the Saints of Lusitania page 178; Antonio Vasconcellos, in the description of Portugal fol. 441; and elsewhere others. Concerning the translation of the holy Martyrs Silvester and Cucufas, and the Virgin and Martyr Saint Susanna, we treat on April 16, in the Life of Saint Fructuosus, Bishop of Braga, whose bodies are preserved at Compostela.
[3] A new fable concerning Saint Victor is found fabricated in the Adversaria of Julianus, no. 391, in these words: "Victor, whether converted by Victor Photinus? surnamed Photinus, Dux of Italica, a city of Spanish Baetica, son of the Samaritan woman called Photina, was destroying peoples rebellious against Claudius Caesar near Braga. There he converted a young soldier, by name Victor, to the faith: who not long after the death of the same Photinus, still a catechumen, suffered for the faith of Christ on the 12th of the month of April." So there; on account of which Tamayo refers the death of Saint Victor to the year 69. Which we do not approve. Of Saints Photina and Victor we treated on March 20.
COMPENDIUM OF THE MARTYRDOM.
From Ancient Breviaries.
Victor, Martyr, at Braga in Portugal (St.)
BHL Number: 0000
Blessed Victor the Martyr suffered in the confession of Christ on the day before the Ides of April, in the suburb of Braga Augusta, when that same city was still held by Gentile error. In an assembly of the pagans For when a great gathering of the Gentiles had been made for sacrificing to an idol, near the river Aleste, where there was a shrine of the idol which was worshipped by the Pagans with the greatest veneration; it happened that Blessed Victor approached there. When the multitude of the Pagans, which compelled all who were gathered there to sacrifice, saw him, they began to urge the Martyr, who was still a catechumen, to burn incense to their god, and to crown his statue with wreaths of flowers, as he saw was being done by all. he despises the worship of the idol: But Blessed Victor said to them: "You, in honor of your god, leap about with joy and shouts, and adorn him with crowns and flowers: and he, so adorned, seems to you exceedingly beautiful and fine. But I judge him—no, rather, see him—most vile and most foul and worthless and unclean." At these words of the holy Martyr, the people devoted to the idol, kindled with the greatest fury, laid hands on him; and with his hands bound behind his back, they led him bound with great tumult to the Prefect. When Blessed Victor was therefore brought to the Prefect, he professes the faith of Christ. before being questioned he began to cry out intrepidly and to say: "I am a Christian: I worship no other God." Then the Prefect ordered the Martyr to be stripped, and most grievously scourged, and to be tortured with various torments. he is tortured, But the more he was tortured, the more he cried out: "I am a Christian: I shall never deny the name of Christ my God." Since therefore the Prefect could bend him neither by threats nor by torments, that he might either burn incense or suppress the praises of Christ, he condemned him to capital sentence. So Saint Victor was beheaded in the confession of Christ, he is put to death by beheading. and while still a catechumen was baptized in the Holy Spirit and in the blood of his martyrdom. In whose honor a temple was afterwards built, near the river Aleste, A Temple is erected to him. about a thousand paces from the city of Braga, where we conjecture the place of his contest to have been.
ON SAINTS DEMES AND PROTION,
Martyrs among the Greeks.
CommentaryDemes, Martyr among the Greeks (St.)
Protion, Martyr among the Greeks (St.)
On this day these two Martyrs, Saints Demes and Protion, are celebrated by the Greeks; whose memory is inscribed in the ancient Synaxary of Paris of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus; likewise in the manuscript Menaea of Milan of the Ambrosian library, marked with the letter O and number 148. They are referred to also in the printed Menaea and in Maximus, Bishop of Cythera; finally Protion alone is mentioned in the manuscript Dijon Menaea of our Chiflet: The kind of Martyrdom is indicated in the distich added in the printed Menaea; in which an allusion is made to the names: for Πρωτίων in Latin is "First," and Δήμης is akin to the name by which among the Greeks the lictor is called δήμιος. The epigram is of this sort:
Πρῶτος κεφαλὴν Πρωτίων ἀφῃρέθη, Μεθ᾽ οὗ κάραν προὔτεινε Δήμης δημίῳ
With his neck cut, Protion dies first, With whom Demes offered his head to the lictor.