ON ST. VICTOR OF CEREZO, MARTYR,
AT CEREZO IN OLD CASTILE IN SPAIN,
About the year CML.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
His cult, the time, his Acts, the translation.
Victor, martyr, at Cerezo in Old Castile in Spain (St.)
BY J. P.
Ceresum, of which the formation of the name is not one and the same, is thus described on this day in Tamayo, page 592: The place of the martyrdom, Cerasum. An ancient town not far from the city of Burgos (near Belorado, as Marieta, presently to be cited, has it), which today is called Zerezo; formerly, as is drawn from the Acts, populous and full of inhabitants, but now reduced to a small settlement. To this last and common formation of the name of this place the same author accommodated himself in his announcement, when at page 587 he relates the Martyr: Among the people of Cerezo near the city of Burgos. Further, as that place was the birthplace of St. Victor's mortal life — who is commonly named San Vitores — so it stood forth as the arena of the better and everlasting life, his public cult being propagated not through Spain only, but through the whole Catholic Church also, since the annual memory of the Man is prescribed to be read every year in the Roman Martyrology, which relates him thus: In Spain, of saint Victor the martyr, who, being slain by the Moors for the faith of Christ, was adorned with the crown of martyrdom. The announcements in Molanus, Canisius, and Galesinius we do not transcribe hither; but to these we add other things which have been transmitted to posterity concerning the Martyr's public veneration.
[2] Gil González Dávila in the Ecclesiastical Theater, among the things which he writes of the metropolitan church of Burgos, his public cult. recounting the holy bodies which exist in that city and in its archbishopric, at page 25 sets at Cerezo the body of St. Victor the martyr, and adds that his lesson is read on the XVI (he meant to say XXVI) of August. Juan de Marieta of the Order of Friars Preachers, book 2 On the Saints of Spain, which is on the Martyrs who were not pontiffs, chapter 74, says: The holy body was in that cave (of which he had treated before) some years, and afterward was translated to where it now is; and many peoples flock together with processions, to ask of God that through the Saint's intercession he may favor them well in temporal things. His feast the church of Burgos celebrates on the XXVI day of the month of August, and on that day seventy peoples come together furnished with their crosses. It was a convent of our Order, he says, and is now of the Friars Minor. Johannes Vasaeus in the Annals of Spain at the year 950, among the other things which he writes of St. Victor, delivers this concerning his public cult: His body is honored in the town of Villorado with the greatest veneration. And that it was translated thither on the XIII of the Kalends of June in the year of the Lord MCDLXVI, by the command of Don Luis de Acuña, bishop of Burgos, Tamayo relates at page 591. The instrument for this we shall give below.
[3] the time of the martyrdom Concerning the time of the martyrdom authors do not agree. Vasaeus, already praised, records thus: In this year (950) Abderamen Halihatan, king of Cordova, stirred up the twelfth persecution against the Christians called Mozarabs — of the reason of which word it has already been spoken (and we have treated of it at length before volume VI of the month of July). This persecution took place only in Spain. And Abderamen decreed that whatever Christians lived in the dominion of the Moors should either deny the faith of Christ, or should pay the penalty with death. Then, some Martyrs having been named, he narrates the following concerning ours: At the same time there suffered a like martyrdom (namely of a head cut off) blessed Victor, born in the town of Cerezo of the diocese of Burgos, who by his prayers freed his native place from a ten-year siege, and by his sacred sermons converted many apostates and Saracens to the faith of Christ. Ambrosio de Morales in the Chronicle of Spain, book 16, chapter 15, at the year 938, says: According to what all affirm, he suffered in these years … (St. Victor), and so Vasaeus set him in the year DCCCCL; and it may be believed to be so, since the lessons of the bishopric of Burgos and ancient tradition say it; although others make him contemporary with the lord king Alfonso the Chaste, as the same chronologist had indicated in book 13, page 49.
[4] Baronius at the year of Christ 938, after he had narrated at number 1 the huge victory is weighed from various writers, won by the king of Leon in Spain, named Ramiro, against Abderrahman (as he calls him), then reigning at Cordova, thus goes on at number 2 to our purpose: Further, to these things some who have pursued the affairs of Spain add that the Arab king Abderrahman himself, having received this disaster, when he returned to Cordova, stirred up a great persecution against the Christians subject to him, and that then saint Victor suffered. Thus the most eminent founder of the Annals; but Pagi, weighing his narration at the year just indicated, from number 1 to 3, removes that victory to the following year — which be indicated here in passing, since it touches us little or not at all. What concerns us more is this: let us see whether the year designated by Baronius, or that next following designated by Pagi, can be reconciled with the chronological reckoning of Vasaeus, that is, with the year of Christ 950. In the Acts of St. Victor which we shall give below these words are read: Through the whole seven years in which Victor had lain hidden (namely in the hermitage of Oña) Cerezo had endured the Saracen siege — which by the warning of an angel the Saint is there said to have freed from that long siege (in Vasaeus, as we just now related, from a ten-year one). Morales, the aforesaid, when at the year 938 he records his martyrdom, does not wish to bind it strictly to that year, but speaks with an extension of time, as is persuaded from his words alleged above.
[5] But now, if to the year 938, or 939 by Pagi's correction, and with them it is determined. you add some time for Abderamen, routed with so huge a disaster by king Ramiro, to stir up a great persecution against the Christians subject to him, you will easily come to the year of Christ 950, or even beyond, if the siege was of ten years, as Vasaeus asserted. These are my thoughts, which I leave to the reader's judgment, if he shall find anything more correct. Meanwhile I desire that the marginal note set at the beginning of this Commentary be understood in this way, and indeed with some latitude of time by the adverb about. Then I profess that in fixing this time I speak with the authors rather than from the credit of an ascertained fact, because a suspect circumstance is added in the matter of the cow, as we shall presently see. Let us pass on to the Acts of St. Victor.
[6] Those which we shall commit to the press bear this title: The Acts Of St. Victor the martyr, from the ecclesiastical records of the church of Burgos, metropolis of Old Castile. Our Daniel Papebroch added in the margin from volume G, folio 142. But at the end of the Acts is appended the following censure, and that indeed in the hand of him who wrote the copy: Cæsar Baronius judged that the lesson should be corrected … That which is read of the cow should be taken out of the way. Which sounds in some sort fabulous, although in those parts it is held for a miracle. The Acts of this Martyr are also contained in Gonon among the Lives of the Fathers of the West, book 3, page 160; whence I have received some things which I have added in the margin to the copy of the church of Burgos, and have enclosed in the context of that same copy with this sign [ ]. Lucio Marineo in volume 1 of the Hispania Illustrata, which was printed at Frankfurt in the year 1603, page 334, briefly touches upon the deeds of St. Victor; and he relates indeed that the Moors destroyed him with most bitter punishments, but has nothing of the crucifixion, nothing of the cow, nor of Cerezo freed by the Saint from a long siege.
[7] and various Marieta, cited above, while he sets forth at greater length the history of that place, freed from that siege by the holy Martyr through the ministry of a cow,
which is touched upon only most briefly in the Acts to be exhibited by us a little later, he makes it far worse and less credible. For the Saint, having gone forth to his own people of Cerezo at an angel's warning, is said to have dealt with them thus: Let us see — the Lord has sent me to free you — what store of provisions you have for your sustenance. They answered that nothing was left them but a little wheat. St. Victor asked them whether they perchance had any cow. They answered that they had. The Saint said that they should give the cow what she might eat to the full, and should thus drive her out full beyond the city. The enemy Moors, who were pressing the city with a siege, having caught sight of the cow, at once pierced her through with lances; and, her entrails being opened, they found her full of wheat. Seeing this, the enemy said among themselves: Seven years is it since we have been busied about this city, to take it by hunger, and we suppose that they now have nothing to look for; and we see that they give food to their herds in such abundance. Since assuredly we see this, it must be that the city is well provided with food; wherefore we have nothing here to wait for. So they resolved to depart and to leave the siege.
[8] upon the same To this narration from the Spanish text of Marieta certain other things may be added. For, first, in the place where the drops of blood from his feet fell, when they wished to fasten him to the cross with nails, he affirms that a mulberry tree afterward sprang up, which down to the present day, he says, remains in memory of that miracle. Second, after he had narrated that the Saint was beheaded, he relates that a fierce serpent never afterward appeared, after the Saint's words to it, which he there records. Third, he subjoins that a spring was prodigiously brought forth from the earth by St. Victor, adding that it remains down to the present day. Now Marieta flourished at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, and his history which we here use came forth into the light in the year 1596. More concerning him in Échard, volume 2 of the Writers of the Order of Preachers, page 377. Whence it comes about that we do not dare to give him credit, because there are wanting older documents which might confirm matters so many and so marvelous.
[9] observations. The Acts which are contained on this day in the Martyrology of Tamayo are interpolated; in which, besides other things which displease, there occur seven women who, being warned from heaven by St. Victor, are said to have been snatched from the hands of the Saracens. Add a dead man recalled by him to life, and the holy Martyr's epitaph. For indeed Tamayo's pottery is too well known and seen through for us to admit wares of this kind on the slender credit of that fabulist. Here now for you, reader, are the Acts. Their author is hidden from us; the age in which they were written is unknown; they record certain marvels, of which Baronius above judged that one should be erased. For the truth of all the rest I should not dare to vouch; but I bring forward those things which I find in our copy, even though I cannot confirm their truth with surer documents, as I could wish. In the matters which are wont to be indicated in the Annotations, since they may most easily be read in this Commentary, I shall be very brief.
[10] Of the Saint's translation, of which mention was made above from Tamayo, The instrument of the solemn the same author treats on the XX day of May, and brings forward the instrument of it from an ancient, as he calls it, manuscript codex written in Spanish; which, lest anyone should here miss it, we recite upon whatever credit Tamayo or that codex may have: After many times had passed since St. Victor for the faith of Christ came to the crown of martyrdom, and his sacred body is known to be entombed in the church dedicated to his name, God willed by his intervention to accomplish very many miracles, both in the place of his burial and in the other surrounding towns, whose series it would be long to unfold, because many have been wrought, and innumerable are wrought daily; to spend time upon which, when we are about to treat of the translation, would be to take one thing for another. In the year, therefore, of the Lord's Nativity MCDLXVI, on Sunday the XIII of the Kalends of June, the translation of the sacred body was made with a huge affection of devotion, and with a solemn array of the townsmen. For although the sacred pledges of the glorious Martyr lay in an honorable place, nevertheless, after the house and monastery had received enlargement by the alms of pious men, the devout and very magnificent Lord Don Luis de Velasco set all his effort upon translating the remains of the holy Martyr. Which that he might accomplish, he obtained from the reverend and very magnificent Lord Don Luis de Acuña, bishop of Burgos, leave for translating the sacred body of the Martyr; and because his lordship could not be present at the act, he committed the work of the translation to the reverend lord Don Íñigo, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter of Cardeña.
[11] Who, very many ecclesiastical persons being called in, both secular and regular, translated the most holy relics of Bl. Victor the martyr from the place in which they lay to the greater chapel of the aforesaid monastery, which is found to have been founded many years ago in the diocese of Burgos, in the territory of the town which they call Belorado. translation is given. To such an act, therefore, of the holy translation there came from all the neighboring towns and villages innumerable confraternities with supplications and processions, with crosses and insignia, showing very great devotion. Among other noble persons, Don Bernardino de Velasco, first-born of the constable of Castile Pedro Fernández de Velasco; Don Diego Sarmiento, count of Salinas; and Don Sancho de Velasco; and also Doña María de Mendoza, wife of Don Luis de Velasco; Doña Ana de Velasco their daughter; and Doña Leonor Osorio, wife of Alfonso Díaz Bolcier — likewise graced this act, which being completed, every one returned to his own house. And I beg pardon of the holy Martyr, because I have not worthily woven together his history and the manner of the translation, as his merits and my own homage demanded. May God, the Best and Greatest, grant that we may perform such works in this world that by the prayers of so great a Martyr we may deserve to be translated to the highest summits of heaven. Amen.
ACTS
By an anonymous author,
from the records of the church of Burgos.
Victor, martyr, at Cerezo in Old Castile in Spain (St.)
The Saint is called by an angel from solitude to free his native place: Victor the martyr, born in the town of a Cerezo of the diocese of Burgos, after he had sufficiently mastered the sacred Scriptures, and had for some time exercised himself in b priestly ministries, desiring to shun the allurements of the world, withdrew into the hermitage of c Oña, and passed seven whole years among the caves of wild beasts, intent upon hymns and the divine praises. At that season, when the Moors possessed nearly the whole of Spain, Cerezo, then a great city, had revolted to the Christians, and through that whole seven years in which Victor had lain hidden had endured a Saracen siege. Wherefore an angel appeared to Victor and roused him with these words: Come, Victor, act, break off delays; your native place calls you, that you may save it from the long siege with which the Moors have now for seven years surrounded it. The walls totter; the townsmen, after enduring many hardships and being destitute of supplies, are preparing to make surrender. Hasten, that\ you may free your native place.\ Victor came to Cerezo, and, being seen and recognized, at length made his way into the camp of the Moors.
[2] When Victor was sharply assailing the Mahometan superstition in the enemy's camp, and the Christians who had fallen from the faith were being recovered, in vain he is tempted to embrace the Mahometan sect; and very many Moors had received the law of Christ, Gaza, one of the kings of the Moors, not suffering these things to be done with impunity, ordered Victor to be seized and brought to him. Victor, standing by the king, who was suffering from the disease of gout, first freed him; then, when the king tried to persuade Victor that he should deny Christ, he inveighed\* against the Mahometan sect. The king, angered at Victor's boldness, ordered him to be dragged thence and cast into prison.
[3] he is fastened to the cross, is beheaded; and the siege of Cerezo is raised. But when, being detained in prison, he none the less by preaching won an innumerable people, the king, for the benefit of health received, ordered Victor to be beheaded by the soldiers. Victor asked the executioners that they would first fasten him to a cross; which they did as vigorously as willingly. For three days he hung alive upon the cross, converting very many and performing very many no common miracles. For to a certain man who spat upon him he foretold death before his return into the city, which presently followed. At length, being taken down from the cross, he received in his hands his head cut off at one stroke, and directed his way into the town of Cerezo, and, having addressed the townsmen, ordered a cow, filled with the little wheat which alone remained, to be let out through the gate;\* which the enemy pierced through with javelins, and, seeing the wheat bursting forth, despairing of victory they straightway departed.
ANNOTATIONS.
\ Otherwise Propterea*.
\ Otherwise there is added: and you shall seal yourself with martyrdom*.
\ Otherwise invectus est*.
\ Read, with our other copy, portam* (gate).